Bengaluru: Observing that it is a medical establishment’s minimum responsibility to maintain its premises safely, the IV additional district consumer disputes redressal commission has held Divine Spiti Ayurvedic Clinic liable for the electrocution of a 55-year-old woman during treatment. The forum called it a case of gross negligence.The story began on Sept 16, 2023, when Alok Kumar, a 30-year-old resident of KR Pura, took his mother Kamaladevi for a seven-day Ayurvedic ‘lepanam’ treatment at Divine Spiti, opposite their residence. The session began around 10am, but within an hour, things took a disturbing turn.Around 11.15am, Kumar noticed a sudden change in the treating doctor’s behaviour. The doctor, he alleged, grew visibly agitated and hurriedly arranged to shift the patient to a hospital by 11.25am. What followed added to the man’s alarm. The medical staff at the clinic failed to clearly communicate his mother’s condition, merely stating she was unconscious. Without seeking his consent, they moved Kamaladevi to East Point Hospital, Avalahalli, where doctors told him she had passed away even before admission.Deeply suspicious of the circumstances surrounding her death, Kumar ensured the body was transferred the same day to the department of forensic science and toxicology. The autopsy revealed Kamaladevi’s death was due to electrocution. When Kumar asked the clinic about this, he received unclear answers.Alleging negligence and deficiency in service, Kumar filed a consumer complaint on April 16, 2024, holding the clinic responsible for his mother’s unnatural death and seeking compensation. The clinic filed a written response denying the allegations, saying it offers only Ayurvedic, lepanam-based treatments without the use of electrical equipment. After going through all the documents and hearing both sides, the commission observed that Kamaladevi had gone to the restroom on the clinic premises on the day of the incident. Shortly thereafter, Kumar was informed by the clinic’s staff that his mother had fallen unconscious. She was then moved to East Point Hospital. In its response, the clinic admitted that Kamaladevi had experienced severe breathing difficulty after visiting the toilet on its premises and was administered CPR by the staff. While distancing itself from responsibility for the ‘abnormal death’, the clinic didn’t provide any evidence to counter the postmortem finding, which cited electrocution as the cause, the consumer forum observed. Noting that such unnatural deaths don’t ordinarily occur without negligence, the forum said: “The clinic failed in its legal duty to prevent such an incident.”The commission, on April 29, 2025, ordered the clinic to pay Kumar Rs 5 lakh compensation with 9% interest from the day Kamaladevi passed away, Rs 10,000 for deficiency in service, Rs 50,000 for pain and mental agony, and Rs 10,000 to cover legal costs.