The body of a 14-year-old boy kept at the mortuary of the District Headquarters Hospital in Kothagudem was taken away by his family members without the knowledge of the Duty Medical Officer (DMO), creating a flutter in the State-run hospital on Friday.
The boy, a native of a tribal hamlet in Julurupadu mandal, was admitted to the hospital with acute stomach ache, akin to symptoms of suspected poisoning on Thursday afternoon. He died during the course of treatment late in the afternoon. His body was shifted to the hospital’s mortuary for postmortem the same evening.
The parents of the boy reportedly pleaded with the DMO to handover the body of the boy without performing autopsy as they do not suspect any foul play in his death. However, the DMO refused to accept their plea, citing rules.
A little later, some relatives of the boy in alleged connivance with a sanitation worker of the hospital took away the body in a clandestine manner to their native place in Julurupadu mandal, where they buried it. As the disappearance of the body led to a commotion in the hospital on Friday morning, the hospital authorities alerted the local police about the incident.
The police, accompanied by a two-member doctors’ team, reached the burial site and exhumed the body in the presence of the mandal Revenue officials on Friday evening. A post-mortem was conducted on the body at the site.
Meanwhile, the Hospital Superintendent Dr Ramesh told newsmen in Kothagudem that a detailed inquiry has been ordered to probe the alleged role of a sanitation worker behind the incident.
