Hospital authorities claim they have handed over the post-mortem reports to the police, but the latter seem to be clueless
Investigation in to the death of 11 inmates at the Delhi government-run Asha Kiran Home for the mentally retarded seems to be making no headway. With the authorities passing the buck and no one ready to take the responsibility of the situation, the blame game continues.
Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), Rohini, Santosh Kumar Rai, who is also the investigating officer to carry out inquest proceedings, said he has received the post-mortem reports of only five inmates whereas the remaining six are still with either the police or the medical authorities. The inquest reports for all the 11 deceased remain pending even though the first death took place on December 3, 2016.
When contacted, senior police officers had no specific information regarding the status of the post-mortem reports. The hospital authorities, however, confirmed that all the reports have been handed over to the police. "We have submitted all the post-mortem reports to the police officers," said Dr Punita Mahajan, Medical Superintendent, Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital.
SDM Rai has already written to the police and the medical authorities twice. The two notices accessed by DNA — issued on January 12, 2017 and February 1, 2017 — reveal that the SDM was being summoned by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) for the delay in submission of the inquest report.
"On examination of several cases, it has been observed that viscera and tissue preserved by doctors during post-mortem was not deposited by the police officers in the FSL/Histopathology department in a time-bound manner. Due to this, the cases remained pending for long," the notice stated.
To make the process more streamlined, Rai had requested the authorities to deposit the viscera and tissue within three days from the date of post-mortem and the receipt of the same within seven days from the date of the post-mortem. This has not been done as well. In fact, in many cases, the tissue samples were not submitted for years. Sources also revealed that the hospital authorities take a long time in giving the report and the police officers further delay submitting it, setting back the entire process.
Meanwhile, it has been revealed that 5 of the 11 people who died at the home itself did not have a family. Officials said in most cases, either the family refuses to take them or the inmates do not know about the family. In such cases, the home staffers carry out the final rites.
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