Patna, March 4: The typist-cum-assistant to the superintendent of Nalanda Medical College and Hospital (NMCH) sustained grievous injuries when three bombs were hurled at him this morning at Agamkuan area of Patna City, a few metres away from the health hub.

The sudden attack on the NMCH employee, Ram Pravesh Singh, was made a day after an order was issued to remove 36 nurses on contract for submitting fake certificates. The security of the hospital superintendent, Shiv Kumari Prasad, has been beefed up after the incident.

Ram, sources said, was on his way to the hospital when the incident occurred. Ram got down from a train at Didarganj station around 9.15am and started walking towards his office. When he reached near an ATM adjacent to Rajendra Memorial Research Institute, just a few hundred metres from the NMCH main gate, criminals hurled bombs at Ram.

One of the bombs hit Ram and he fell down. He was later rushed to NMCH. His condition is said to be critical.

“Ram will retire in a few months. A resident of Barh, some 60km from the state capital, he used to come to work by train,” a hospital official told The Telegraph.

Sources in the hospital claimed that the attack on Ram had something to do with the dismissal order of nurses for submitting fake certificates. The hospital superintendent had asked him to handle the file pertaining to the removal of nurses. The NMCH superintendent said the tainted nurses were told at the time of joining last September that their certificates and credentials would be thoroughly checked by the Indian Nursing Council before their salary was released.

“Once these nurses joined, we started the process of scrutiny. Their certificates were sent to the Indian Nursing Council. Last month, the council sent us a letter stating that as many as 36 nurses had furnished fake certificates. Acting swiftly on this, we informed the government authorities and started the process of cancelling the contracts of those who figured in the list. I had asked Ram to handle the process. He was just doing his job,” Prasad said.

Patna senior superintendent of police Alok Kumar, who went to the spot after the incident, said the matter was being investigated.

An officer at the Agamkuan police station said: “We are recording the statement of the hospital administration and scanning details of the fake nurse controversy. The police are making necessary investigations and we will zero in on the criminals who hurled bombs at Ram. We could not record the statement of Singh till late as he is in a very critical state.”