The Podanur police registered a case against a group of relatives of a man, who died after testing positive for COVID-19, on charges of attacking a staff member of a private hospital, under the Coimbatore City Police limits, on Thursday.
The police said that a 62-year-old man, who was undergoing treatment for COVID-19 at the private hospital on Madukkarai Main Road in Sundarapuram, died after five days of treatment on May 29. Nearly a month later, over seven persons claiming to be the deceased’s relatives visited the hospital on Thursday and allegedly engaged in a verbal altercation with a doctor over the medical expenses.
Following the spat, one of them allegedly snatched the doctor’s mobile phone and ran outside. The hospital’s public relations officer K. Balasubramanian (45) followed him and was allegedly assaulted by four men. Before leaving the spot, they threw the doctor’s phone on the road, according to the police.
Based on the PRO’s complaint, the Podanur police registered a case invoking section 4 (Cognisance of offence) of the Tamil Nadu Medicare Service Persons and Medicare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage or Loss to Property) Act, 2008 along with sections 294 (b) (Uttering obscenities), 323 (Punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 324 (Voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means) and 506 (1) (Punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.
Police sources said on Friday that the relatives accused the hospital of not providing proper treatment to the man and allegedly refusing to produce certain documents regarding the treatment cost, which led to the altercation with the doctor at the hospital on Thursday. Further inquiries are on and efforts to nab the accused using the CCTV footages are under way, according to the sources.
