Times
of India: Hyderabad: Tuesday, 24 November 2015.
Dozens of
bodies have 'gone missing' from the two top state-run hospitals in the city ,
an RTI query has revealed, pointing to the active involvement of a mafia
carrying out illegal trafficking of human bodies.
Known to have
a lucrative market in various parts of the country, cadavers have a ready
market in the city too, with some private medical colleges willing to shell out
Rs 3 lakh to Rs 15 lakh for each body , depending on the gender.
It starts when
an old, infirm, destitute or a badly-injured victim of a road accident is
shifted to the hospital in an unconscious condition by a home guard or
constable.A medico-legal case (MLC) is duly registered at the local police
station. To then imagine that these patients - most of them on their last leg
and registered as 'unknown' in medical records - would go 'absconding' is
far-fetched. But that is exactly what the authorities at Osmania General
Hospital (OGH) and Gandhi Hospital said as reply to the RTI query , putting the
number of such 'missing' patients at 117 since January.
The
perplexing disclosure was made to city-based health activists K Rajeshwar Rao
and Sreenivaas Moorthy D, who are alleging that these 'unknown' patients, in
reality, die and as cadavers are trafficked out from hospital mortuaries by a
mafia.
What lends
credence to their allegation is the fact that both Gandhi and OGH authorities
have not installed any CCTV cameras inside or outside their respective
mortuaries to track the movement of cadavers. There is no system in place of
taking a photograph of the patients when they first arrive so that medical
records can be duly updated. Under the RTI query filed by NGO Satya
Harishchandra Foundation, founded by Dr K Rajeshwar Rao, Gandhi Hospital
authorities furnished a list of 51 unknown patients who 'absconded' between
January 1 and October 10 this year.All of them had been brought to the hospital
by a duty constable, home guard or the government railway police (GRP).
The Gandhi
Hospital authorities furnished particulars by giving their date of admission,
names (recorded as unknown), gender, the number of the police officer admitting
the patient, and the medico legal case number registered.
The OGH
Hospital authorities too informed the activists that in this period 66 such
patients 'absconded'. However, they did not provide particulars, saying that
the medical records were 'confidential'.
"There
is a need to order a high level probe to unearth the mafia dealing in
trafficking of human bodies from state hospitals. People on the verge of death cannot
just vanish into thin air as is being claimed by the hospital
authorities," said Rajeshwar Rao. His Satya Harischandra Foundation helps
give unclaimed bodies to their loved ones. In fact, the disappearance of bodies
from hospitals is taking place despite the Telangana government issuing GO No 9
in January 2015 setting up a cadaver certification committee.This panel
arranges for unclaimed bodies to be supplied to private medical colleges on pay
ment of Rs 60,000 each.
"There
is a high demand for cadavers in private medical colleges across the country to
teach human anatomy to undergraduate MBBS students. It is for this that illegal
trafficking of unclaimed bodies is being resorted to by the mafia,"
alleged Sreenivaas Moorthy , who is also a senior leader of Lok Satta. When
contacted, both OGH and Gandhi Hospital superintendents, Dr CG Raghuram and Dr
G Venkateshwarlu respectively , denied any foul play. They, however, admit ted
to the lack of CCTV cameras to monitor ac tivities at the mortuaries.
"It is
true that these un known patients (66) might have been brought to our hospital
by the police in serious condi tions, but they absconded soon after regaining
consciousness.
In case they
die, we inform the police and the unclaimed body is used for our anatomy
classes," Dr CG Raghuram, superintendent of OGH, said, adding that they
themselves face a shortage of cadavers.
Dr G
Venkateshwarlu too maintained that these 'unknown' patients just walk out
without informing anybody . "We have nothing to do with such cases,"
he said.
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