The Khanna police booked at least 15 residents of Jammu and Kashmir for allegedly manhandling a medical officer at the Khanna civil hospital on Monday. Opposing an autopsy of their kin who had died in a road mishap, the accused allegedly barged into the mortuary after breaking the door open and manhandled the doctor.

The accused also tore the documents. After police intervened, the accused took away the body without a post-mortem being conducted.

The City 2 police lodged a first-information report (FIR) against Mohammad Sharif Chaudhary of Kathua in Jammu, Shamsher, Surmudin, and their 12 unidentified aides. Meanwhile, the doctors threatened to go on strike, seeking arrest of the accused.

A pickup jeep driver, Jakir Hussain, 22, had suffered severe injuries in a road mishap near Ikolaha village of Khanna after a speeding truck hit the vehicle. He was referred to Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, where he succumbed on May 31.

The body was sent to Khanna for a post-mortem.

Medical officer Dr Gurwinder Singh said that before he could conduct a postmortem, the accused barged in after breaking open the door. He immediately informed the police.

City 2 staion-house officer (SHO) sub-inspector Gurmeet Singh said that an FIR has been registered against the accused and they would be arrested soon.