Gauhati Medical College Hospital (GMCH) Superintendent Abhijit Sarma on Thursday clarified that the management of the hospital is not responsible for yesterday’s incident related to exchange of dead bodies in morgue.

Sarma said that there was no negligence from their side. "If anyone has to be blamed, it should be the guardians and the police, not us," Abhijit Sarma told the media.

Sarma then shared a report dated May 3, which reads, “On May 1, 2023, the officer in charge of Satgaon police station, Guwahati, kept the dead body of a deceased person named Laxmi Chetri in the morgue of GMCH. On May 2, at around 2.50 pm, a letter was received from SI (P) of Basistha Police station requesting the post-mortem examination of a deceased person named Sewali Rajbongshi. The body was identified by UBC 323 Babul Saikia of Basistha PS along with the husband of the deceased Kandarpha Saikia, and after following all the formalities, the post mortem examination was conducted by Dr Priyadarshani TC (on duty PGT) under the supervision of Dr Kan Bapu Choudhury, Associate professor, Department of Forensic Medicine, GMCH, vide Post mortem report no. 1421/2023. After the post mortem examination of the deceased was over, the body was handed over to the escorting police UBC 323 Babul Saikia of Basistha PS.”

Meanwhile, on May 3, at around 10 am, the attendants of the deceased Laxmi Chetri reached the Mortuary complex, GMCH, along with accompanying police personnel from Satgaon PS to take over the body of the deceased.  However, it was later revealed that the dead body on which the post mortem examination (PMR No. 1421/2023) was conducted on May 2 was actually the body of the deceased Laxmi Chetri, whom the escorting police of the Basistha PS and the attendant of the deceased Sewali Rajbongshi identified as the body of the deceased Sewali Rajbongshi, the report stated further.

Sarma also shared a copy of a challan where the UBC 323 Babul Saikia of Basistha PS has claimed to have identified the body, on the other hand, the deceased's husband, i.e. Kandarpha Saikia, had signed the challan while the receiving the body.  

“It is the duty of the police to identify the body, not the person in the morgue. Moreover, if there is any negligence from our side, the attendant should have visited me for the clarification,” added Abhijit Sarma.

Earlier, a chaos broke out at the GMCH premises after a corpse of a woman kept in the GMCH morgue went missing on Wednesday morning.