Lucknow: UP Police will send a team to Haryana to verify documents provided along with cadavers “donated“ to a city-based private medical college. On Saturday, TOI had reported that a Union health ministry note last month had revealed that 14 cadavers were donated to this college by the Dera Sacha Sauda in Haryana's Sirsa district.

Experts in the anatomy department at the 116-year-old King George's Medical University (KGMU) have expressed surprise over the purpose of bringing bodies to the GCRG Medical College in Lucknow from a place as far as Sirsa, Haryana.“Cadaver serves no purpose in medical studies if not embalmed within six hours of death,“ said Prof Navneet Singh, head of KGMU's anatomy department.

The note, a copy of which is with TOI, mentioned that the bodies were obtained “without requisite permission and death certificates.“

“A three-member team would visit Haryana to physically verify documents provided by family members of the deceased whose bodies were donated. The team would visit their homes and interact with family members,“ said Lucknow senior superintendent of police Deepak Kumar.

Cadaver donations from Sirsa Dera (Representative pic)

On Saturday , the GCRG Institute of Medical Sciences management provided the city police a file containing 168 documents. It has been found that the college obtained 14 cadavers from the Dera between March 2 and June 14 this year.

TOI found out that the college had forwarded government-provided IDs of the deceased persons, sworn affidavits and consent letters of their immediate kin, receipt of ambulance service used to ferry the bodies and no-objection certificate of the kin.

The college also provided copy of the letter of appreciation that it wrote to the Dera for it's voluntarily body donation.The college also gave track codes of speed posts and the dates on which the following documents were exchanged between the various stakeholders. Though in some cases, college provided medical history of deceased persons, the dossier did not have death certificates.

Sources told TOI the city police is unlikely to slap criminal charges on the college management as no irregularity has been detected in the documents provided by the college.

Police would, however, seek the opinion of the state health department in order to find out if college authorities have violated rules framed by director general of medical education for private medical institutes. Meanwhile, a relative of one of the deceased who TOI spoke to, confirmed the family had donated the body to the college.

Pawan Kumar, a resident of Jind district in Haryana, who lost his mother Sona Devi (74), told TOI over phone: “We donated the body as Dera Sacha Sauda urges us to support such noble activities. We had given our consent to GCRG College to use her body for research.Nobody asked for her death certificate while we were in the process of handing over the body .“

The Uttar Pradesh government is also keeping a close vigil on the issue. Spokesperson and health minister Siddharth Nath Singh said, “We have taken note of the case. Action will be initiated if the college is found to be at fault.“

Singh said the state government may consider constituting a technical committee to look into the cause of death of the deceased persons whose bodies were donated.

'Bodies from far of place defies logic'

Lucknow: Experts in the anatomy department at the 116-year-old King George's Medical University (KGMU) have expressed surprise over the purpose of bringing bodies to the GCRG Medical College in Lucknow from a place as far as Sirsa, Haryana.“Cadaver serves no purpose in medical studies if not embalmed within six hours of death,“ said Prof Navneet Singh, head of KGMU's anatomy department.(ToI story)