Police have released the two siblings, who allegedly assaulted an intern doctor over the death of their mother at Khulna Medical College Hospital, after 13 hours in the face of protests.
Earlier, KMCH authorities handed them over to the police around 3am on Sunday while refusing to hand over the body. They did not file any police complaint either.
The duo are Tarikul Islam Kabir and Saddam Hossen, from Daulatpur in Khulna.
Their mother Piarunnisa, 55, died while undergoing treatment at the KMCH in the small hours of Sunday. She was admitted to KMCH on April 8 with chest pain and incomplete excretory functions.
Md Mostakim, another son of Piarunnisa, blamed on-duty intern doctor Kamrul Hassan for his apathy regarding her treatment and became involved in verbal arguments and physical fight with him.
At this, the hospital authorities confined his two cousins, beat them up and handed them over to the police. They also beat up their father Abdur Razzak.
The father said: "On Saturday night, my wife's condition became critical but the duty doctors refused to visit her. When my son informed the doctor, he was told to bring the medical reports instead. The doctor said she was fine. Later, my wife died that night."
Later, his son Mostakim charged the doctors for not visiting his mother and got involved in a fight with a doctor, he said.
"Being informed of the incident, I apologized to the doctors by holding their hands and legs, and requested them to forgive my son for his behaviour. At this time, one intern doctor beat me up as well, and the hospital authorities handed over my other two sons to the police. They also kept my wife's dead body in the hospital."
Knowing all these, the councilor of Ward No 6 went to the hospital along with some reputed locals, but the intern doctors misbehaved with them all, said Razzak.
Mamun, a nephew of Abdur Razzak, said that the hospital authorities had also denied their entry till 11am on Sunday when he wanted to see the dead body.
Intern doctor Kamrul Hassan said that he gone to the unit after learning about the brawl between the patient’s relatives and two doctors – Monish and Pritom.
“I went there as a representative of the Intern Doctors' Council. We had already discharged the dead body,” he claimed. “Police have detained her two sons. We’ve nothing do here.”
KMCH Residential Medical Officer (RMO) Dr Suhash Ranjan Haldar said that the dead bodies are discharged after following a procedure.
“It was not a case of holding the dead body. Police took those brothers in custody only to mitigate the situation, he claimed.
Ward Councillor Shamshuddin Ahmed Prince said they were unable to either convince the hospital authorities to release the body or make the police release the brothers from their custody.
The arrestees were not released by the police even after City Mayor Talukdar Abdul Khalek intervened in this matter, he added.
When no solution came till the afternoon, some angry locals protested and blocked the Dhaka-Khulna Highway for half an hour from 3pm, prompting the police to release the arrestees and the hospital to discharge the dead body.
The brothers took part in their mother's funeral after being released. She was buried at Goalkhali graveyard on Sunday after the Maghrib prayers.
