Six men from Maharashtra’s Shiv Sena party attacked the head of the civic body-run KEM Hospital’s forensic department, Dr Harish Pathak, on Saturday. The political workers were upset that the hospital’s forensic department staff wrote numbers on the bodies of the Mumbai stampede victims.

The hospital drew criticism from several quarters for writing numbers on the foreheads of the stampede victims. The photos of the victims with numbers on their foreheads were put up to expedite the process of identification, PTI quoted the hospital as saying. Twenty-three people died in the stampede on the foot overbridge near Mumbai’s Elphinstone Road and Parel railway stations.

Nilesh Dhumal (pictured above; in white) tried to write the number zero on Pathak’s forehead during the heated argument. A journalist who was interviewing Pathak when the Shiv Sena workers stormed in intervened.

Dhumal defended his actions. “He has hurt our feelings,” claimed Dhumal. “All those who died in the incident are my brothers and sisters. The hospital had zero humanity so I wanted to write number zero on his forehead.”

Scroll.in’s correspondent witnessed the incident. The Bhoiwada police station has detained Dhumal and his party colleague Yuvraj Dhakle. Others fled from the hospital. The police is in the process of filing an FIR.

The workers and doctors at the mortuary wing of the hospital have suspended work after the incident. “We worked round-the-clock to conduct the autopsies and we are being punished,” an unidentified worker from the department told Scroll.in.