Police have registered a first information report (FIR) against a senior doctor of a government hospital in Latur district of Maharashtra for allegedly instructing a colleague to "kill" a Covid-19 patient during the peak of the pandemic in 2021, officials said on Thursday.

An audio clip of the purported conversation between the accused, Dr Shashikant Deshpande –  then additional district surgeon at the Udgir Government Hospital in Latur – and Dr Shashikant Dange, who was posted at a Covid-19 care centre, surfaced on social media, reported news agency PTI.

Several hospitals were crowded with patients and resources were scarce when the second wave of Covid-19 had hit the country.