Krishnagar, April 2: Two brothers were beaten up by the employees of a Kalyani hospi-tal on Monday after they refu-sed to sign a paper saying negligence had not caused their 75-year-old mother’s death.

Hashirani Sarkar of Shantipur had been admitted to the Gandhi Memorial Heart Hospital with chest pain. After she died, her sons Tarun Kanti, 48, and Ranjit, 55, sought an explanation from the ward master.

“When we got mother admitted, a cardiologist told us she would have to undergo ECG, EEG and other tests. But no test was carried out and she did not receive any treatment. My mother died a pathetic death,” said Tarun, who runs a homoeopathy medicine shop.

“When we went to speak to the ward master, he asked me to sign on a white sheet of paper, saying it was for an undertaking that the hospital was not responsible for my mother’s death,” he added.

When the brothers refused to sign the paper, they were dragged into a room where “five men hit us with sticks and punched us”.

They fled leaving their dead mother behind and went to Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Hospital in Kalyani, 5km away. Tarun had a gash in the head and Ranjit had severe pain in his hands waist and back. “I was given four stitches on the head. My brother’s right arm had a fracture,” Tarun said.

The brothers went back to the Gandhi hospital to lodge a complaint with superintendent N.D. Bhowmick. He allegedly refused to accept it, saying “signing the undertaking was the hospital’s norm”.

Bhowmick declined comment, but said: “The matter’s being blown out of proportion.”

Tarun and Ranjit returned to the hospital with police and took their mother’s body away.

“We have started a probe,” said Nadia superintendent of police H.K. Kusumakar.