Guwahati, July 17: A Covid-19 patient at the Railway Hospital in Maligaon that now treats Covid-19 patients, late last night went around with what is believed to be a rod in his hand, allegedly to threaten the nurse on duty.

It is, however, not possible to determine from the video if the rod was actually a rod or a stick though sources inside the hospital confirmed it was an iron rod. Sources said he was dragging around the rod to attack the nurse who was on night shift.

A video made available to NewsFileOnline showed the man, who is dressed in a white T-shirt and a pair of dark shorts, come down a staircase, enter a room where there are other people near the door with masks on, go back a little, get back into the room again and finally disappear down what appears to be other wards. In between his phone appears to ring. He has the ‘rod’ in his hand right through the video.

In the video, a female voice is heard saying, possibly on the phone: “RP officer kon ase olop help korokna amak (can the Railway Police person who is there help us?)” Then “RP officer kon? Keijonman matokna olop help korok… Olop help korok amak… Patient khiniye olop amak help korok….” (Who is he RP officer? Call a few and help us… Please help us a little… Patients please help us). Then there is a second female voice that says “Tar hatot lathi edal ase. Lathidal nethakile kotha nasil (he has a stick in his hand. Had he not had that stick it would have been no matter…” The then what appears to be the first female voice says “Lathidal gusai dibo lagisile tar pora (that stick needs to be removed from him).”

The other people seen in the video, while being in masks are not in PPEs. Asked why this is the case the sources said: “The sisters (nurses) are in PPEs but were hiding (from the man).”

Sources in the hospital said the man, a Covid-19 patient, is admitted at the hospital. According to the sources, there has been “no uniform coding” of patients in the hospital. The man, the sources said, was later overpowered and was then kept in a room where he was unconscious. “He has been locked up till he regains consciousness.” Without providing specifics, the sources also said there was a security issue in the hospital ‘yesterday as well’.

Sources said that there were no RPF men inside the hospital for protection. “All the RPF men who are here are here as patients,” the sources said.

Asked what information they had, R Kumar, inspector of the Railway Protection Force, stationed at Guwahati, said,  “I had visited the hospital with a colleague. Hospital authorities told us a heated argument had broken out between two Covid-19 positive patients and staff of the Covid Railway Hospital at night on Thursday when the staff could not admit the two patients because of unavailability of beds. We reached the spot and instructed the staff and patients to sort out the issue amicably and not resort to any activity that may harm other patients or the hospital atmosphere. The situation was brought under control.”

When asked about the threatening with a rod incident, Kumar said, “We obviously could not get into the ward of the hospital as we were not in PPEs. But there was no incident of violence.”