The father and three relatives of a one-year-old girl, who died at KJ Somaiya Hospital in Sion, on Monday morning, were on Tuesday booked under a special law for assaulting three doctors.

The police registered a case only after around 150 resident doctors from Somaiya Hospital started a 24-hour token strike on Tuesday to demand better security.

The hospital authorities wrote to the police to urge them to file a case under the new ordinance aimed at protecting medical staff against such assaults.

Prachi, who had been diagnosed with pneumonitis, had been transferred to Somaiya Hospital around midnight from the nearby Sunny Hospital.

“She had developed acute respiratory distress syndrome and was very critical. The doctors suspected swine flu and were about to transfer her to Kasturba Hospital but she succumbed,” said Indian Medical Association state vice-president, Dr Anil Pasnekar, who was at the hospital on Tuesday.

After the girl was declared dead at 1 am, her father Anand Acharne (32) and three others started beating on-duty resident medical officers, Dr Vineet Sharma (30), Dr Arpana Singhania (26) and Dr Saurabh Mootha (26), and a security guard, Dr Pasnekar claimed.

“Dr Aparna injured her spine and one doctor’s eardrum was injured,” he said.

Somaiya Hospital’s medical superintendent Dr NB Jaju could not be reached for comment despite repeated attempts.

The Wadala TT police registered a case against the four under the Maharashtra Medicare Service Persons and Medicare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage of Property) Act, 2008.