In a shocking incident, the staff of a private hospital in Aligarh allegedly beat to death a 44-year-old resident over non-payment of bills upto Rs. 4,000 on Thursday afternoon, various media reports cited.
The victim, Sultan Khan, was a resident of the Iglas village of Aligarh district and his family members told The Indian Express that some hospital staff attacked Khan and other relatives accompanying him. The staff was demanding money for a visit, but Khan and his family left as they couldn’t afford treatment.
Aligarh: A patient’s relatives claim they were thrashed by a hospital’s staff when they couldn’t pay them Rs 4000; also say, patient got injured&died during scuffle. Deceased’s nephew says “We paid bill of Rs 3700 but they demanded Rs 4000 more,claiming it to be entry fee”(02.07) pic.twitter.com/7IsD1izrDn
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) July 2, 2020
Family cries foul, hospital denies allegations
The Indian Express reported that the family members of the victim said that Khan had gone to the private hospital in Quarsi area for a check-up as for the past few days he was facing a problem while urinating. Chaman, a relative of Khan’s, told reporters that the hospital said that Khan would need an ultrasound. The family then asked for the admission fees and reportedly told the hospital that they would get Khan treated there only if they could afford it. However, Chaman alleged that they were billed for Rs. 4,000 even though the hospital didn’t carry an ultrasound.
Khan was reportedly prescribed medicines, the bill for which came to Rs. 3,783 which the family agreed to pay. However, they were then asked to pay a further Rs. 4,000 at the counter for “visiting” the hospital, Chaman told the media. This is when the family said that they had paid Rs. 2000 for the same at the counter and the extra charges were uncalled for.
Narrating what happened after, Chaman said, “We were stepping outside when a man stopped us. A light scuffle took place. Some metres ahead of the hospital, four or five people came and beat us up. My relative (Khan) suffered a fatal blow – he died. We were injured, too,” reported IE.
However, The Times of India reported Dr. Danish Ali, a member of the hospital management as saying that the patient visited the hospital with complaint of difficulty in passing urine and was feeling breathless. Ali said, “So, we advised him to visit the medical college for further treatment. The patient paid medicine charges, but did not pay the hospital fee of Rs. 2,000. They attacked our staffer when he asked him to either pay the balance of Rs. 2,000 hospital fee or meet the doctor,” TOI reported.
FIR to be registered
The incident was caught on CCTV and the police have initiated a procedure to register an FIR in the matter. The CCTV footage showed the staffer going inside the hospital after clashing with the patient’s relative and returning with other workers armed with sticks. It also showed the alleged attack on the patient and women members, purportedly belonging to the same family, running away as the assault continued.
Abhishek, SP (City) Aligarh, told IE that the CCTV evidence in which the “scuffle” was visible, had been recovered. He said, “The SHO of Quarsi police station has filed an FIR and has been asked to investigate the footage and ground evidence. Once the PM (postmortem) report is in, we will ascertain the nature of injuries. Investigation will take place accordingly.” The police have now sent Khan’s body for a post-mortem.
#aligarh #SP (city) Abhishek confirmed to register an #FIR on the basis of available #evidences. pic.twitter.com/C2zfNV4b4e
— Anuja Jaiswal (@anujajTOI) July 2, 2020
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