Nobel Medical College Teaching Hospital in Biratnagar has been accused of keeping a dead man in its intensive care facility for three days to fleece his relatives.

The relatives of Naim Mansuri, 25, of Bhokraha, Sunsari, has accused the hospital staff of deliberately withholding the information about his death and charging them money for various laboratory tests and medicines.

Mansuri was admitted in the intensive care unit of the hospital on February 24 for complications caused by brain tuberculosis. His wife, Ruksar Khatun, said that she learned about her husband’s death only on Thursday from one of the doctors.

“The doctor reproached me for not taking my husband’s body home. I was shocked when he told me that he had died three days ago because the people in the ICU had been sending me to the hospital dispensary and laboratory to buy medicines and submit test samples until early Thursday morning,” Khatun said.

While Mansuri was in the ICU, the hospital staff had allegedly barred Khatun and other relatives from meeting him.

“The doctors told us that he was unresponsive and they were administering him medicines every six hours,” Khatun said.

Khatun had borrowed Rs 100,000 from her relatives to treat her husband. She said she still owned the hospital Rs 95,000 and another Rs 200,000 for medicines.

After learning that the hospital staff had allegedly been lying and extorting them, friends and relatives of Mansuri gathered at the hospital on Thursday afternoon, demanding an explanation.

Mohammad Islam, a relative of Mansuri, threatened to stage a protest if they did not get a sound explanation from the hospital. Mansuri’s family have refused to receive his body until they get their answers.

Meanwhile, the hospital administration has refused to comment on the issue.

Narayan Dahal, the hospital’s public relations officer, said the hospital director was in talks with Mansuri’s family.

“This is a sensitive issue. I cannot comment right now,” Dahal said.