A 26-year-old Bangladeshi woman has alleged that a leading private hospital in Bengaluru withheld her husband’s body for eight days over unpaid dues of Rs 35.79 lakh and retained her passport after he died during treatment. She received the body on Saturday after seeking help from Bangladesh High Commission. The hospital confirmed releasing the body but did not respond to her allegations. The hospital later said the patient had undergone critical care and surgical treatment after arriving with severe breathing difficulty and died despite the efforts of its medical teams.Tangila Islam Asha, 26, of Naugaon, told TOI that she and her husband, Mohammed Abdul Hakim Shabuj, 32, a contractual govt teacher in Bangladesh, arrived in Bengaluru on Sept 5 for treatment of his kidney ailment. Shabuj was admitted to ICU at Manipal Hospital on Old Airport Road the next day after developing severe chest pain and breathing difficulty.Asha said Shabuj underwent multiple procedures over the following days and his right leg was amputated on Sept 14 after it developed an infection. His condition subsequently deteriorated and he died around 1.30pm on Sept 18.“During his treatment, I paid a total of Rs 7.5 lakh in several instalments whenever they asked. After his death, I was trying to understand how I would take his body back to Bangladesh when the hospital asked me to pay Rs 35.79 lakh and said the body would not be released without payment,” Asha told TOI.She alleged that the hospital neither provided receipts for the Rs 7.5 lakh nor gave her a prior cost estimate or explanation for the outstanding amount. “I was completely helpless. After they withheld the body for eight days and retained my passport, I wrote to hospital management and also contacted Bangladesh High Commission for help. Finally, they handed over the body on Saturday after making the dues nil,” she said.Mohammed Moqtadir Hossain, Shabuj’s friend from West Bengal, who travelled to Bengaluru after learning of her situation, said local activists helped Asha recover her passport on Friday and complete formalities for taking the body home. “Apart from the Rs 7.5 lakh she had already paid, she paid nothing more,” he told TOI.
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When contacted, a Manipal Hospital office-bearer confirmed that the body was handed over on Saturday but declined to respond to Asha’s allegations. In a statement issued later, the hospital said Shabuj arrived with severe breathing difficulty, was found hypoxic and shifted to ICU, where he suffered a cardiac arrest and was resuscitated twice before being put on ECMO and ventilator support.The hospital said surgeons performed a pulmonary thromboendarterectomy on Sept 9 after tests showed clot formation and blockages in several regions. “Despite best efforts from the critical care as well as the surgical team, the patient succumbed to his illnesses on 18th September 2026,” it said.’