Two employees of a government hospital dumped the body an infant in a biological waste vehicle for incineration at Janakpuri in West Delhi on Monday.
The incident came to light on Monday morning after the infant’s parents reached the hospital’s mortuary to claim the body.
A case was later registered against the hospital authorities at the Janakpuri police station in West Delhi.
“The incident came to light when Rajesh Kumar Verma and Neetu Verma reached Mata Chanan Devi Hospital on Monday around 10 a.m. to claim their baby’s body from the mortuary and found it missing,” the police said.
Mr. Verma, a resident of Janakpuri, told the police that his wife gave a birth to a girl on Sunday afternoon at a private hospital — Khanna Nursing Home — near their house.
When the baby’s health deteriorated, the nursing home advised them to take her to Mata Chanan Devi Hospital. The baby died around 10 p.m. on Sunday.
As a rule, the hospital staff kept the infant’s body in the mortuary and asked her parents to claim it on Monday morning.
On Sunday, Mr. Verma paid Rs.7,000 towards his baby’s treatment expenses and Rs.1,500 towards mortuary expenses. He found the body missing from the mortuary when he came back on Monday morning.
It was after the couple raised their voice and called up the police, the hospital authorities discovered that two mortuary employees had dumped the body into the biological waste vehicle.
The hospital said they mistook the body for biological waste. They told the police that a part of a leg wrapped in a white cloth was kept beside the infant’s body and instead of dumping the leg, they dumped the body.
Acting on the complaint of the infant’s parents, the police recovered the body and sent it to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital for post-mortem.
The family later alleged that the baby had died due to negligence of doctors.
“A case under Section 297 [Trespassing on burial places or offers any indignity to any human corpse] of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against the hospital authority at the Janakpuri police station,” a senior police officer said.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal reacted strongly to the incident later in the day.
He issued a statement saying those responsible will not be spared at any cost. Terming it inhuman, the Chief Minister also assured strict action against the accused.
