Officials of the Bharatratna Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Municipal General Hospital informed Kandivli police about the body on Tuesday; hospital sources said the 70-year-old man breathed his last on October 28, 2014
In a bizarre incident, officials of the Shatabdi Municipal Hospital, Kandivli (West), took over four months to send an unidentified body lying in the morgue for an autopsy examination.
Sources from the hospital claimed that the 70-year-old patient was admitted to the male medical ward by a social worker from Nallasopara on October 25, 2014. However, the man’s condition deteriorated and he died of various complications on October 28. Later, his body was shifted to the morgue located on the hospital premises.
ADVERTISEMENT
As per the protocol, the hospital administration should have intimated the Kandivli police about the body so that formalities could have been completed on time and the body would have gone for autopsy examination immediately. But the body remained at the morgue for over four months.
Finally, the hospital officials informed the cops on Tuesday. A panchnama was done, following which the body was shifted to Bhagwati Post-Mortem Centre. A police official admitted that the delay in sending the body for autopsy examination occurred due to the communication gap between the police station and the hospital administration.
Hospital speak
Dr Krishna Pimple, medical superintendent, Shatabdi Hospital, admitted that there can be delay at times in informing the police about such bodies. “This happens specially when the body has come from a far off location like Nallasopara, and the local police are trying to track down the family members so that the body can be claimed,” he said.
Cop speak
Mahipati Pandharmise, senior police inspector, Kandivli police station, said he will conduct an inquiry into the matter, and ensured that there was no delay in carrying out the procedure for conducting the autopsy examination once they were informed about the body.
Expert speak
Dr Harish Pathak, head of forensic department, KEM Hospital, said it is important to conduct an autopsy examination on unidentified bodies as quickly as possible. “No matter what level of preservation is used, a body is bound to get decomposed after months, and this must be avoided at all cost,” he said.