Body of stillborn baby goes missing from Siliguri District Hosp, ‘missing plaint filed’

Sanchita Aich Bag, MP, 17 Oct 2024, Siliguri: The body of a stillborn baby went missing from Siliguri District Hospital. The police from Siliguri Police Station rushed to the spot after being informed of the situation. 

The mother, Riya Gupta, a resident of Ward 4 of Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC), was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday night, where she gave birth to a stillborn son. After the tragic delivery, Riya’s family, including her husband Mohammad Kaif Khan, visited the hospital to take home the corpse. 

They were told by hospital staff that they could collect the body after four hours or return the next morning. The family opted to collect the body the following day and left the hospital. 

However, when they returned on Thursday morning, they found out that the corpse was missing. Family members, deeply distressed by the incident, criticised the hospital for negligence and a lack of transparency. 

“How can a child’s body go missing from a hospital? There is negligence from the end of the authorities,” said Md. Ahesan, one of the relatives of the child. Dr Amit Dutta, who is in-charge of the hospital during the absence of the superintendent, acknowledged the security lapse. He revealed that, at times, the bodies of deceased infants can be mistakenly discarded along with biomedical waste and this possibility is being investigated. 

Additionally, he mentioned that the hospital’s CCTV cameras were non-operational the previous day, which has added to the complexity of the investigation. “We have filed a missing complaint with the police and announced the formation of an internal committee to investigate the disappearance. 

All the on-duty staff that day will be questioned,” Dr Dutta added. 

Courtesy & source- Millennium Post

https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/body-of-stillborn-baby-goes-missing-from-siliguri-district-hosp-missing-plaint-filed-583530