An eye of a man who died of gunshot injuries to his stomach while undergoing treatment at the government-run Nalanda Medical College and Hospital (NMCH) in the state capital was found missing, with the doctors blaming rats.

Fantush Kumar, aged 22, was shot and injured by criminals at Chiksaura in Nalanda district on Thursday. The injured youth was admitted to NMCH on the same day and was operated upon by the doctors. He eventually passed away on Friday night.

When the members of his family went to see Fantush’s dead body, they found his left eye missing. The family of the deceased protested at the hospital. They alleged foul play with him and sought justice.

“When we asked the doctors about the missing eye, they replied very casually that rats had eaten it. They went away afterwards, leaving us alone,” Fantush’s brother Jitesh Kumar said.

Fantush’s family also showed videos made a couple of hours before his demise in which both his eyes were normal.

“The doctors are saying that rats ate the eye. Will a rat put cotton and bandages over it and wrap it with a towel? Is this how you run a hospital,” asked Asha Devi, a relative of the deceased.

The police were called as the protest continued and the hospital authorities could not pacify the agitated family and acquaintances of Fantush. Meanwhile, the autopsy of the dead body was conducted.

“We will come to know about the exact reason behind the missing eye —whether it was taken out, or was due to trauma, or rats have gnawed it away, or there is any other cause — only after the postmortem report comes. We have also constituted a four-member team of doctors to probe into the matter,” NMCH superintendent Vinod Kumar Singh told reporters.