Assam: A dialysis unit at Silchar Medical College was sabotaged, and two employees were detained for damaging life-saving equipment.

B O News Desk : Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Numal Mahatta confirmed on Thursday that police arrested two men and placed them in remand for further investigation into the SMCH sabotage incident.

Police arrested two insiders, a 19-year-old housekeeping worker and a 28-year-old technician — in  Assam’s Silchar for allegedly vandalising the dialysis unit of Silchar Medical College and Hospital (SMCH) on the night of August 10, damaging nine life-saving machines.

According to polcie, the sabotage took place inside the hospital’s third-floor Apollo-run dialysis wing, which reportedly connected to a dispute over illegal payments collected from poor patients.

The suspects allegedly used iron rods, took advantage of CCTV blind spots, and acted when no guards were present, disabling most of the unit’s capacity.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Numal Mahatta identified the accused as Samir Uddin Ansari (housekeeping staff) and Alamgir Mia (technician).

“Eight dialysis machines were damaged using iron rods. They also destroyed a computer and a printer. The culprits knew the CCTV blind spots and exploited the absence of night guards on the third floor to carry out the act,” Mahatta said.

Based on early interrogation, police suspect that a ‘middleman nexus’ was charging poor patients for treatment in a facility officially meant to be free.

“Preliminary investigations suggest a nexus involved in collecting illegal payments from dialysis patients. A conflict over the distribution of bribe money might have triggered the vandalism. We are probing every angle and considering patient and public complaints,” the SSP added.

“We will unearth the truth soon; forensic and fingerprint reports are pending,” he said while addressing a press conference.

The act severely crippled SMCH’s dialysis operations, reducing capacity from 14 to just 3–4 functional machines, impacting 30–40 economically disadvantaged patients daily.

The hospital authorities filed an FIR, and they expect repairs of the imported machines to take several weeks, delaying vital treatment.

Forensic teams are examining the crime scene, while police continue to interrogate the suspects to uncover the full extent of the alleged racket.

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