Guwahati, July 25: At least seven persons were injured and articles worth lakhs of rupees damaged when people ransacked a private nursing home in Paltan Bazar and the Dispur telephone exchange in separate incidents here today.

The mob fury at Gurucharan Polyclinic-cum-Nursing Home was triggered by the death of 17-year-old Pradip Mali in the hospital at 11.30 this morning.

Manager of Gurucharan Polyclinic-cum-Nursing Home, Sipra Kanungoe, said six persons, including doctors Arup Kumar Deb and Sanjay Sethi, were injured when a group of people went berserk.

The hospital authorities also refuted the allegation levied by Mali’s family members that he had died because of doctors’ negligence.

“The patient was admitted to the hospital on Saturday with serious injuries. We did our best, but despite that his condition deteriorated. We repeatedly requested his family to shift him to some other hospital, as we do not have all the facilities required for critical care. But they did not pay heed to our suggestion. As a result, the patient succumbed to his injuries,” Kanungoe said.

Soon after Mali died, his friends and family members turned violent and indiscriminately beat up the hospital staff. They locked Deb inside a room and thrashed him, as a result of which he sustained head injuries. He somehow managed to escape from the scene. Most of the patients admitted in the hospital also ran away, fearing for their safety.

The situation became normal only after police and CRPF personnel dispersed the mob.

The hospital authorities and Mali’s family have filed complaints at the Paltan Bazar police station. No one has been arrested so far.

“In their complaint, the family of the deceased blamed Arup Kumar Deb for his death. Deb cannot be traced, but we will pick him up for questioning,” a police official said.

The problem at the Dispur telephone exchange started when the printer used to issue duplicate bills broke down at 10.30 am.

The area manger of Kamrup Telecom district (East), M.K. Gogoi, said, “The subscribers became restless and asked for the Telemart manager. Some subscribers turned unruly when they could not meet the manager, who had gone to our Panbazar office on some official work.”

Protesting against the “inordinate delay”, a section of the subscribers broke all the glasses at the bill collection counters and damaged several articles, including a computer printer.

“In the melee, senior telecom office assistant Binod Paswan was injured,” Gogoi said. He has been admitted to Down Town Hospital.

Four persons were arrested after the BSNL authorities filed a complaint at Dispur police station.