Patna, May 20 (IANS): A 45-year-old Covid infected woman, who was allegedly gang-raped by three employees of a private hospital in Patna, died on Wednesday.

The deceased woman's daughter claimed that her mother was admitted to the Paras HMRI Hospital in Patna on May 15.

"She had symptoms of Covid-19 and hence we had admitted her to the Paras HMRI Hospital. Her health condition was good though. She had walked into the hospital on May 15," the daughter said.

"My mother was sexually assaulted by three persons inside the hospital ICU on May 16. She had informed me about the incident. Since then her health condition deteriorated. I spoke to my relatives and the women's wing of the Jan Adhikar Party (JAP) about the incident," the deceased woman's daughter said.

"In the meanwhile, the hospital administration put her on ventilator support and took my signature on a form. The doctors said that her health had deteriorated and if she was not shifted to a ventilator, it would be life-threatening for her," she said.

"I suspect that the doctors in the hospital intubated her in the neck so that she couldn't give her statement to the police. Now they have declared her dead," she said.

M.L. Khan, the Duty Magistrate of Patna, said: "We have received a complaint from the deceased's person's daughter against the hospital administration. The names of the accused are not mentioned in her complaint. We have sent the body for post-mortem to ascertain if there was sexual assault. The hospital administration has cited corona infection as the cause of her death. Further investigation is on."

Meanwhile, P.D. Gupta from the hospital management team released a detailed written statement later on Wednesday, which refuted the rape charge.

According to the statement, "The patient was admitted to the Covid ICU of our hospital on May 15, with symptoms of Covid. On May 16 evening, the patient had become restless and was not maintaining proper saturation on high flow oxygen. The doctors decided to put her on CPAP support. The patient was very restless and was still not maintaining proper saturation, thus a group of clinicians decided to put her on mechanical invasive ventilation.

"The patient after being put on ventilation did not show signs of recovery and her vitals and other parameters kept deteriorating. The poor prognosis of the patient was explained to the next of kin on several occasions. Unfortunately, the patient lost her battle with Covid on the morning of May 19."

The statement further said: "The patient's daughter has alleged that the patient had been molested by three personnel, whom she was unable to identify between 6 pm of May 16 and 11 am of May 17. This matter was taken up by the hospital management and an internal enquiry was done based on the same. After the investigation, the hospital management had shared its conclusion with the appropriate authorities that such an incident did not happen in the premises of the hospital."

"We are committed to providing the best care to our patients and we will support and extend our cooperation in all investigations and related matters of this case," it concluded.