A professor of Aligarh Muslim University died at the institute's hospital on Tuesday after the facility failed to arrange for an ambulance for more than six hours. The 64-year-old cancer patient's doctors at AMU's Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College had recommended that D Murthy be transferred to a hospital in Delhi as his condition had worsened since Sunday, when he had undergone a surgery, The Times of India reported.

AMU Vice Chancellor Lieutenant General (retired) Zameer Uddin Shah said a three-member panel had been formed to look into the matter and submit an inquiry report by November 5. He added that prima facie, it appeared to be negligence on part of the administrative staff, not the doctors, and that they could not arrange for an ambulance because of a delay in completing paper work.

According to JNMC Principal Tariq Mansoor, Murthy suffered from advanced malignancy and could be moved to a Delhi hospital only in an ambulance equipped with a ventilator. Ambulances with this facility are available at the AMU hospital, according to The Times of India. While Mansoor said there had been a "little delay" in completing paper work to get the vehicle, Dr Mohammad Aslam, who is a surgeon at JNMC, admitted that there had been "procedural delays".

Murthy was the head of the Department of Modern Indian Languages. Secretary of the AMU Teachers' Union Mustafa Zaidi said his death was "a blatant case of negligence", and members of AMU's students' union claimed this was the latest in a series of "numerous cases of serious medical negligence by JNMC authorities". In September, five JNMC doctors were booked for negligence after a student died of dengue while being treated at the hospital.