The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : What happened to all those bodies?

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Karnataka - Bangalore

What happened to all those bodies?

Afshan Yasmeen and Raghava M.

Bangalore: The manner in which Beggars' Rehabilitation Centre inmates' bodies were disposed of over the last three days has raised questions whether there has been any violation of norms by officials.

While the bodies, who died till Wednesday, were cremated in a hush-hush manner without an autopsy, officials said the bodies of eight persons, who died on Thursday, were sent to the Victoria Hospital for post-mortem.

However, Victoria Hospital Superintendent B.G. Tilak said: “We've not received any bodies; five persons from the centre were admitted here.”

The Karnataka State Human Rights Commission, which is inquiring into the deaths, has found that centre's personnel have cremated these eight bodies too.

‘Natural causes'

Inquiries at the centre revealed no autopsy was done and all deaths were deemed “natural”. All the bodies have been cremated. “Autopsy is not done on those who died of natural causes such as old age or disease. I don't remember any unnatural death on the premises,” said G. Harimurthy, Medical Officer at the home's Primary Health Centre.

Rumour denied

Asked to comment on rumours that the centre's personnel sold the bodies to private medial colleges, C.N. Manje Gowda, president of the Central Relief Committee which oversees the centre's operations, denied it. “How are we authorised to do such things? All the bodies have been cremated and there has been no violation of norms.”

Cremations

Hanumanthrayappa, Head Warden at the centre, said 11 bodies were cremated at the BBMP's Laggere crematorium near the Ring Road on Wednesday. “The bodies of the six who died on Thursday were sent to Victoria for autopsy. But they refused to conduct the post-mortem saying only medico-legal cases were eligible. So we cremated them at the Gorguntepalya crematorium,” he said.

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