The family of a young lawyer who died on Sunday was forced to move court to get his body from a city hospital that refused to release it till they cleared the entire bill.

Calcutta Medical Research Institute (CMRI) withheld 30-year-old Rajib Das’s body until Monday afternoon, more than 24 hours after he died of head injuries suffered in a motorbike accident last October. The release order was issued only when the Alipore district magistrate’s court intervened.

“We paid Rs 3.5 lakh out of the Rs 8-lakh bill. We promised to arrange for the remaining amount and requested the CMRI authorities to release the body, but they wouldn’t listen,” Rajib’s friend and neighbour Rajat Sarkar said. “We needed time to collect such a huge amount but the family couldn’t wait that long to take the body for cremation. So, we approached Alipore court on Monday and Justice Apurba Sinha Roy ruled in our favour.”

Armed with the court order, some of Rajib’s friends went to Alipore police station. Another group headed for Singur police station for the report of the inquiry into the accident that occurred on October 24. “The body was officially released after we produced the court order but we kept it at the CMRI morgue because the post-mortem will be done on Tuesday,” said Saibal Betal, who lives near Rajib’s house in Kaibattapara Lane of Salkia.

Rajib used to practice in Howrah court. “His father Shibatosh is 60 and unemployed. His sister, Mitali, is married,” said Kaushik Basu, another friend.

Rajib was accompanying Mitali’s husband, Rangam Mukherjee, to a relative’s house in Burdwan when the front tyre of the motorbike burst while crossing Singur. Mukherjee escaped with a few cuts. “Rajib was on the ventilator most of the time. The family sold all the gold ornaments they had,” Sarkar said.

Legislator Sudip Bandopadhyay had written to the CMRI requesting that Rajib’s family be offered some concessions. CMRI officials claimed that they waived a part of the dues and released the body before Rajib’s friends and relatives came with the court order. “We spoke to some of his relatives at 12.30pm and told them that we had waived Rs 3.5 lakh of the dues. They came with the court order around 3pm, which wasn’t required,” said Rupak Barua, the chief operating officer of the hospital.