A man and his two sons went on the rampage in Peerless Hospital’s emergency ward and tried to attack a doctor on Monday following a relative’s death, the hospital has alleged.

Officers of Panchasayar police station arrested the three based on a complaint filed by the hospital.

The hospital authorities alleged the three, along with other relatives of Radharani Debnath, 83, smashed three of the four computer monitors on the doctors’ desk in the ward and damaged two landline telephones.

They tried to attack Sharadwat Mitra, the doctor who was the last to treat Debnath, and he had to hide in the changing room for about 10 minutes, the hospital authorities alleged.

Debnath, a chronic cardiac patient, had been admitted to the hospital with septicaemia at 7pm on Sunday.

Cops from Panchasayar police station reached the hospital within minutes of being alerted and took Debnath’s son-in-law Bidyut Kishore Roy Chowdhury, 52, and his sons, Bishal Roy Chowdhury, 22, and Sampad Roy Chowdhury, 19, in custody.

Later in the day, the police booked the three under IPC sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 427 (mischief, causing damage to property) and 34 (common intention).

They were released on bail late at night.

“The patient suffered two cardiac arrests on Monday. The first was at 5.30am. We managed to resuscitate her but she needed ventilator support and a temporary pacemaker,” Sudipto Mitra, chief operating officer of Peerless Hospital, said.

“We lost her after the second attack around 8.30am. We tried calling the family at 5.30am but their phone was switched off.

“We could reach them around 8.30am after several attempts... we asked them to reach the hospital fast as the patient was sinking.”

Debnath’s daughter Indira, whose husband and sons have been arrested, claimed their phones, the numbers of which had been given to the hospital, were not switched off.

She alleged the hospital hadn’t told them how serious her mother was when they called around 8.30am.

“Had we realised how critical she was, we would have reached the hospital sooner,” she said. “Also, on Sunday evening they had told us they would shift her to the ITU if there was a bed. But they didn’t shift her. They should not have admitted her in the first place if they knew there was no ITU bed and that she was critical.”

She alleged that some hospital employees had thrashed her husband before handing him over to the police.

The hospital denied the allegation.

Sharadwat Mitra, who had treated Debnath last, said the family reached the hospital around 11am, by when she had passed away.

“They demanded why they hadn’t been informed that her condition was critical. They left but returned and started breaking things and hurling abuses,” Mitra said.

Indraneel Dasgupta, the head of emergency medicine who was in the ward around the time, said there were four people and one of them tried to punch Mitra, who managed to duck in time.

There were at least 25 patients in the ward at that time, the hospital authorities said.

Mihir Dey, whose mother is in the ward, said a person had raised a chair but he apparently dissuaded him from throwing it. “My 65-year-old mother was traumatised by the rampage.”