Mumbai: Rats gnaw dead body of man in civic-run Kandivali hospital; kin traumatised

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The family of a 38-year-old man who died by suicide on Sunday were further traumatised by the negligence of Kandivali's civic-run Shatabdi hospital, which left the man's body to be gnawed on by rats. Deceased Sachin Madan Kakre's family raised the issue with the civic hospital earlier this week and demanded better services. The hospital has claimed that the body was kept in a room adjacent to the mortuary.

According to sources in the police, Sachin was a daily wage labourer residing in Anthony Chawl near the Shankar temple in Ketkipada, Dahisar East. On Sunday, he was alone inside his hut. His wife was in Virar at her parents' home with their two children - aged eight and five years. Sachin's brother, Mahendra and mother Tulsa, lived in a hut right behind the house. Around 10.30 pm, when Tulsa went to meet Sachin, she found him hanging from a bamboo from the hut's roof.

Sachin Madan Kakre's body was left in a room meant only for a panchanama

"My mother screamed and we ran to his house. With the help of neighbours, we brought his body down and rushed him to Kandivali's civic-run Bharat Ratna Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Municipal General Hospital (popularly known as Shatabdi Hospital). The doctors checked and declared him dead around 11.30 pm," Mahendra said.

The hospital informed the Dahisar police, which arrived to conduct the panchanama. "After the police conducted the panchanama, we gave the body to the hospital and left by around 4 am. The post-mortem had to be conducted at Bhagwati Hospital in Borivali later. We returned to the hospital around 10 am on Monday and the police also came to transport the body for post-mortem. When we took the shroud off, we were shocked to see that the nose, forehead, head, and private parts were gnawed by rats in the room where the body was kept," Mahendra said. The police were as shocked as Sachin's family upon seeing the condition of his body.

Mahendra added, "When we left the body in the wee hours, everything was fine. When we complained to the hospital, the authorities immediately came to the spot and admitted that rats had gnawed the body. The hospital should improve its work culture. Such an incident cannot be repeated." A senior doctor at Shatabdi hospital, Ajay Gupta, said, "There is a separate room that is meant for keeping bodies. The place where this incident took place is meant for the police to conduct the panchnama of bodies. The room has partitions made of wood. Somehow, rats made their way inside. We have repaired that room."

11.30 pm
Approx time Sachin was declared dead

04.00 am
Approx time family, police left hospital

10.00 am
Approx time family, police found body bitten by rats