The death of a 40-year-old patient within a few minutes of being wheeled into sadar hospital early on Friday prompted his relatives to go on the rampage at the government heal hub. They also misbehaved with the doctor on duty and fled with the body before post-mortem could be done.

The incident, which occurred a little after 5.30am, underscored lack of security at the biggest state-run hospital of North Chotanagpur commissionerate, which drew flak from Hazaribagh deputy commissioner Mukesh Kumar last week for mismanagement.

According to sources, Manoj Ram, a resident of Pasai village in Katkamsandi, was brought to the hospital at 5.30am by around 10 relatives.

They told the doctor on duty at the OPD, Manitosh Kumar, that Ram had been suffering from acute chest pain for the past few days and was treated by a village quack. When his condition did not improve, they took him to the clinic of a well-known cardiologist, Anwar Ekram, but he referred him to Ranchi.

But the relatives brought him to sadar hospital.

"Dr Manitosh prescribed some medicines and two injections to control the pain. An ECG was suggested too. But soon after the injections were administered, Manoj threw up and died within a few minutes," said a hospital employee.

The death made his relatives see red, who smashed the glass partition of a ward in the OPD and damaged the door of the records room. They also abused Manitosh and took away the body.

New civil surgeon R.S. Vandana rushed to the OPD and spoke to Manitosh and other employees. Later, inspector of Sadar Circle Jitendra Singh reached the hospital after which an FIR was lodged at Sadar police station.

"Usually, policemen remain at the OPD to deal with any kind of untoward incident. But they have been sent for panchayat election duty," Vandana told The Telegraph.

The district administration has allotted four policemen to the OPD. The other departments have private security guards.

She, however, expressed her anger over the role of private ambulance drivers, who were present outside the OPD, but remained a mute spectator. "If hospital employees and the drivers had intervened, the patient's relatives, who were handful in number, could have been easily thwarted," the civil surgeon said.

"When the patient was brought in, his condition was critical. So, I prescribed two simple injections. But it was too late," Manitosh said.

Inspector Singh said that an FIR had been lodged against the protesters for damaging government property and disrupting official work.

"All those who were involved in the rampage will be identified and arrested soon," he added.