The body of a youth who was seriously injured in a road accident in Kozhikode on July 22 was released for post-mortem following an undertaking by the Kozhikode Mayor that hospital expenses would be paid in two days. Later, SC/ST Development Minister A.K. Balan agreed to pay the hospital bill from the minister’s calamity fund.
Local people had admitted the youth, Arjun Kishen, 18, to a private hospital where he underwent emergency surgery. That evening he died. The hospital authorities maintained that the body would not be released till the bill amount of ₹83,234 was paid. Local people raised ₹10,000. The Mayor promised that the remaining amount would be paid in two days. The youth’s father had died earlier. Arjun Kishen was the bread winner for the family which did not even have a habitable residence. When the local MLA, Pradeep Kumar, brought the plight of the family to the Minister’s attention, the latter agreed to meet the hospital bill from the calamity fund.
