File photo of Bombay Hospital
In a private Mumbai hospital, a man reportedly being treated for AIDS and renal failure allegedly attacked other patients with an iron stand, killing one and seriously injuring another. A patient's relative was also injured.
The 42-year-old man has been held.
"This patient was on the quieter side, he was sitting all the time; he wasn't talking at all. He had shown no evidence of violence in last three days of hospitalisation. In fact, we have done a Lumbar Puncture on Sunday and to do a Lumbar Puncture on a patient who is not cooperative is impossible. What has triggered this and why he became so violent in the morning and killed somebody is unexplained," Dr Nirmal Surya, under whose care the patient was admitted to the hospital, told NDTV.
The police say on Monday morning, the man, a patient in the general ward of the Bombay Hospital, suddenly lifted an iron stand with hooks used to hang bottles of blood or glucose administered to patients, and began hitting another patient, Lilabihari Thakur, who was being treated for tuberculosis.
Mr Thakur, 65, who was due for discharge on Monday, died of his injuries.
His son told reporters, "I don't know what came over that man. He picked up an IV stand and attacked my father and other patients. My father was hit in the head and had to be taken to the ICU. By afternoon, we learnt that he had died."
The man also allegedly attacked another patient, 70-year-old Prafulchand Parmar and a relative visiting him, Janardhan Atre. Both are seriously injured.
"The motive behind the attack is not yet clear. The accused is undergoing treatment in JJ hospital," a senior inspector at the Azad Maidan police station said.