Mumbai: Body of murder victim with COVID-19 nowhere to be found

The man, who tested positive after his death, was stabbed and died on the way to Rajawadi Hospital on June 2. File pic

Despite searching for more than a day, Rajawadi Hospital-s administration has been unable to find the body of the murder victim who tested positive for COVID-19 after they misplaced it. The victim-s relatives have now approached Tilak Nagar police station to file a complaint against the hospital.

According to the victim-s relatives, he was allegedly stabbed by his brother after a family squabble broke out at Baiganwadi last week. After the body was brought to Rajawadi Hospital on June 3, the hospital administration carried out a COVID-19 test since the forensic department staff didn-t want to touch the body fearing the virus.

The victim-s cousin said that the hospital collected the swab on June 4, even though regulations don-t allow testing people after their death. "The hospital kept saying that they can only give us the body after the post mortem. When the report came back positive after five days, the body had gone missing. We checked each and every body in the mortuary, but my brother-s body isn-t there. What if they gave his body to someone else and it was buried or cremated? We are filing a complaint against the hospital," said the relative.

He added that the hospital has asked for two days- time to find the body.

Dr S.M Patil, police surgeon who was supposed to oversee the post mortem said that the body was never sent from the hospital-s mortuary. "All bodies are brought and taken away by the police. After the victim tested positive, we were informed and were waiting for the body. However, it was never sent to us," he said.

When contacted, Dr Vidya Thakur, medical superintendent of Rajawadi Hospital said they are still searching for the body.

"We have called all our mortuary attendants back and are searching. We are internally trying to figure out how the body was misplaced in the first place," she said.
Currently, there are around 15 bodies in the hospital-s mortuary. While Ragini Bhagat, senior police inspector of Deonar police station confirmed that a complaint has been filed with Tilak Nagar police station, sources said that an FIR is likely in the case.

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