Madhya Pradesh police on Monday arrested the manager of a private hospital named City Hospital in the state’s Shajapur district, 211 kilometres west of Bhopal, on a charge of wrongful confinement of an 80-year-old man. The elderly man was allegedly tied to the hospital bed on non-payment of the hospital bill of Rs 11,270 three days ago, the police said.
The charges levelled against the hospital by patient Laxminarayan Dangi, a resident of Ranara village in Rajgarh district, and his daughter Sheelabai were found legit by the district administration after which and an FIR was lodged with Kotwali police station. The patient had filed a complaint under section 342 (wrongful confinement) of Indian Penal Code (IPC), police officials said.
Dangi and his daughter had alleged that the hospital staff tied his legs and hands to the hospital bed when they failed to clear the final bill of the hospital to the tune of Rs 11,270 before Dangi was to be discharged from the hospital on Friday.
As a video of the patient tied to the bed went viral on social media, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan took note of the incident and assured strict action. An inquiry was instituted by district collector Dinesh Jain on Saturday night.
Shajapur district collector Dinesh Jain said, “Prima facie charges against the hospital staff were found true, hence the FIR against the manager of the hospital Nitesh Sharma under section 342 of IPC has been filed. The hospital was sealed and its registration has been suspended. There was no patient admitted to the hospital at the time of the sealing of the hospital. The outpatient department (OPD)’s patients were moved to the district hospital.”
{{/usCountry}}Shajapur district collector Dinesh Jain said, “Prima facie charges against the hospital staff were found true, hence the FIR against the manager of the hospital Nitesh Sharma under section 342 of IPC has been filed. The hospital was sealed and its registration has been suspended. There was no patient admitted to the hospital at the time of the sealing of the hospital. The outpatient department (OPD)’s patients were moved to the district hospital.”
{{/usCountry}}The collector further added, “The hospital management in its defence said that they had tied the patient to the bed to administer medicines to him as he was having convulsions. But during the inquiry, it was found that the way the patient had been tied didn’t appear to be the case as the hospital management presented. Also, the hospital management’s logic didn’t appear to be convincing because the patient was admitted to the hospital on June 1 but was tied to the bed on June 5. If he was having convulsions he could have been tied earlier too. However, a final decision on the hospital will be taken later after due proceedings.”
Kotwali police station in-charge Ajit Tiwari said, “Nitesh Sharma, the manager of the hospital who is a resident of Shajapur has been arrested. Since the crime committed under section 342 of the IPC is bailable, he was released on bail from the police station.”
Despite efforts, owner of the hospital Dr Varun Bajaj could not be reached for his comments. He didn’t take phone calls and didn’t respond to text messages.
(With input from Sunil Verma in Shajapur)