Malegaon AIMIM MLA Mufti Mohammad Ismail has been arrested for thrashing a doctor at hospital.

At a time when the country is facing a public health emergency due to rising cases of coronavirus and doctors and health workers engaged in an unprecedented fight to provide relief to the commoners, an All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MLA from Malegaon, Mufti Mohammad Ismail, and his supporters have been accused of barging into a hospital here and engaging in an altercation with doctors and hospital staff. The MLA has been arrested by the police, news agency ANI reported.

According to a report by Times Now, the incident took place on March 23 when Mufti along with his supporters allegedly attacked a doctor inside the hospital building, apparently because he didn’t receive his calls. The footage of the brawl aired by Times Now shows one of the MLA’s accomplices kicking and threatening a staffer of the hospital inside the cabin of Health Officer Dr Kishor Dange and also manhandling one of the staffers.

The hospital administration later filed a police complaint against Mufti, alleging that a group of people led by the local MLA abused and threatened Dr Dange and also manhandled one of the employees.

The MLA, however, told Times Now that he along with his 3-4 supporters had gone to the hospital on March 23 but didn’t harass anyone. He accused Dr Dange and the hospital staff of negligence and dereliction of duty. Mufti alleged that when he learned about five coronavirus suspects, he arranged a vehicle and rushed them to the civil hospital. But they were returned after 10 minutes.

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#Exclusive | We did not attack any doctors. The hospital authorities should’ve been more courteous: Maulana Mufti Ismail tells TIMES NOW over the brawling incident in a hospital in Malegaon, Maharashtra. | #IndiaBattlesCoronavirus pic.twitter.com/LqzuUCEryZ — TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) March 26, 2020

“I called Dr Dange, who is responsible for the functioning of the hospital, 18 times. I even dropped a message, but didn’t get any response,” he said. The MLA added that later he spoke to the doctor’s assistant who assured that he will arrange a call back when the doctor is free.

“I told him (doctor’s assistant) that I will come to the hospital if a call is not arranged. But I didn’t receive any call for the next four hours. Then I decided to visit the hospital along with three of my supporters,” he said, adding that he even approached the SP, requesting to look into the matter as civil hospital officials were behaving irresponsibly.

When asked about the unruly behaviour by one of his supporters who kicked the doctor, the MLA justified saying “even after that the doctor was not ready to take the responsibility”. He quickly added, “No one there was ready to listen to us… we did not attack any doctors. The hospital authorities should have been more courteous.”

Maharashtra is among the worst-hit states in the country due to the coronavirus outbreak. According to a PTI report, the total number of COVID-19 cases in the state has gone up to 124 as two more persons tested coronavirus positive on Thursday. Both are from Mumbai city. Four persons have lost their lives so far in the state even as a total lockdown has been imposed to prevent mass gathering at public places. Till Tuesday, 2,988 people were admitted to isolation wards of hospitals since January 18, while 932 persons were in hospital quarantine for suspected exposure to the virus.