Author: A Staff Reporter
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: April 14, 2003
URL: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1030414/asp/calcutta/story_1870002.asp
Introduction: Offices, vehicles
damaged in rampage over body
Neither the time (11 am) nor the
location (on Park Street, a five-minute walk from the local police station
and the office of the deputy commissioner - south) could save a private
healthcare centre from being vandalised for half an hour on Sunday.
After several government hospitals,
it was the turn of Assembly of God Church Hospital to turn into the target
of mob fury, with over 300 people going on the rampage, protesting the
authorities' refusal to hand over the body of a patient. Hospital officials
maintained that Mansoor Ali, a Topsia-based leather trader, had been admitted
with stab injuries and so only the police could hand over his body to the
relatives. But Ali's family and friends stormed the hospital with iron
rods and lathis.
The emergency ward and offices on
the ground floor were raided; glass panels and furniture at the reception,
the cash office, the inquiry counter and the registration office were smashed.
Outside, 15 vehicles, including two ambulances and some doctors' cars,
air-conditioning machines and a number of flowerpots were damaged.
According to the police, Ali and
business partner Tasweer Ahmed Khan were stabbed on Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road
late on Friday by two unidentified youths. "Both were taken to Assembly
of God Church Hospital, where Khan succumbed to his injuries on Saturday,"
said Zulfiquar Hasan, deputy commissioner of police (central). Ali, who
had undergone surgery soon after admission, succumbed to his injuries around
6.30 am on Sunday.
As news of Ali's death spread, his
neighbours started assembling at the hospital. "By 10.30 am, about 300
people had gathered," said a hospital staff. "Trouble broke out after they
were told the body could only be released under police supervision."
Three people armed with iron rods
first entered the emergency ward. "Even as we whisked two female patients
into an adjacent room, the mob started smashing the glass and other equipment,"
said a hospital staff. "A group of around 30 then rushed towards the rear,
smashing the windscreens of vehicles parked on the premises. Some security
guards were beaten up when they tried to resist the rampage."
After a 30-minute assault, the mob
dispersed and the attackers left the spot in a bus parked near the hospital
gate. "Minutes later, the police arrived and we handed Ali's body over
to them," the employee added.
The attack on Assembly of God Church
comes in the wake of frequent mob flare-ups at SSKM Hospital, RG Kar Medical
College and Hospital, National Medical College and Hospital and Calcutta
Medical College and Hospital. And all this, while health-sector reform
remains atop the priority list for the 'do-it-now' government.