The Asansol sub-divisional hospital. (Gour Sharma)

Durgapur, June 15: The superintendent of an Asansol hospital and a nurse were asked to “go on leave” today after they were allegedly found in a “compromising position” in the nurse’s hostel, a creaking bed being the giveaway.

According to the complaint lodged by Monika Ghosh, the nursing superintendent of Asansol sub-divisional hospital, a nurse was “woken up from sleep” around 2.15am by noises from one of the rooms in the staff hostel “that appeared to be that of a bed creaking”.

The nurse informed the other inmates of the hostel and all of them rushed to the room along with security guards.

“I initially thought a thief had broken into one of the rooms. On reaching the room, we found it bolted from inside. No one opened the door despite repeated banging. After some time, the bolt came loose and the door opened,” the nurse said. “We saw our superintendent in a compromising position in the bed with one of our colleagues,” she added.

Relatives of patients arrived at the nurses’ hostel and assaulted the 35-year-old superintendent and the nurse, who is in her late twenties.

Hearing the commotion, the doctor’s wife rushed to the hostel from the superintendent’s quarters on the hospital premises. “The superintendent’s wife caught the nurse by her hair and slapped her,” a security guard said.

The superintendent’s wife, who works as a nurse in the hospital, refused comment. The superintendent, who has two children, denied the charge against him. “This is a conspiracy by some staff members against whom I had started a probe for indulging in malpractices. I am an adult and have done nothing wrong,” he said.

The Burdwan chief medical officer of health has ordered a probe into the allegations against the superintendent and the nurse. “They have been asked to go on leave till the inquiry is completed. This is very unfortunate and the allegations are serious,” said Tanmay Mukherjee, the CMOH.

Local people led by Trinamul MLA and Asansol mayor Tapas Banerjee demonstrated in front of the hospital this morning. “Our chief minister is trying to improve health care in hospitals but people like this superintendent are doing the damage,” he said.

Nursing superintendent Ghosh alleged the doctor used to come to duty drunk. “He had behaved indecently with nurses earlier.”