Lucknow, Dec 27 (IANS): The UP health department has shut down a private hospital in Faizullaganj and started an inquiry against the staff after a video of a man being thrashed went viral on social media.

Three patients admitted there have been shifted to a government hospital.

A three-member committee under additional chief medical officer (ACMO) Dr A.P. Singh has been constituted for the investigation.

The video, said to be 15 days old, shows a young man being brutally beaten with a belt and pipe. The young man was pleading for help. A woman was seen threatening to teach a lesson to the young man by tying him up with a rope.

Dr Singh said, "We have found that the video was shot inside the hospital, therefore its functioning has been stopped till the investigation gets completed and the guilty can be identified. The hospital staff are saying that the man was a thief."

However, even if he was a thief, they should have handed him over to the police, he added.