Team Herald
PANJIM: Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMC) morgue in Bambolim is reeling under the pressure of storing bodies brought by the Police Department due to cases of body disposal pending with the authorities, including the Sub Divisional Magistrates (SDM).
Sources in GMC informed Herald that bodies, which have been stored in the morgue as far back as February 2016, are yet to be disposed off due to pending cases which are yet to be investigated. As per available information nearly 25 per cent of the cabinets allocated to the Police Department are occupied by bodies, which are more than minimum six months old.
Sources said there are two bodies stored since 2016, one of these being of February 2016. Further there are four bodies in the morgue since 2017 and three since 2018.
Authorities claim that there has been an attempt to improve the system after the September 29, 2018 incident of Januz Gonsalves’ body being handed over to the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) to be cremated, instead of an unidentified body of a 45-year-old man.
The GMC morgue after the modernisation process and commissioning of the new block has the capacity to store 108 bodies, which post-October 2018 have been equally divided between the GMC, private cases and the police department.
Out of the 36 units allocated to the police department, six units are currently non-functional due to a technical fault, which has affected a batch of six units. Out of the remaining 30 units, nine are occupied by bodies that have been kept in the morgue since 2016, 2017 and 2018.
A senior official of the GMC said, “The police should ideally be able to dispose off the bodies in three weeks. After conducting the autopsy the police take photographs and are supposed to publish notices in newspapers. After a fortnight if nobody comes forward then they should dispose off the body. But bodies are stored for months without even an autopsy.”
In the case of the body stored since February 2016, sources said that the case is pending before the SDM Mormugao and no action has been taken, even the autopsy has not been carried out. There is a similar case of Calangute Police Station and Margao Police Station.
When Herald contacted the Mormugao SDM Paresh Faldessai, he said that he is unaware if any cases are pending and whether they are pending for such a long time. “I will have to check as I’m unaware of any pending case, let alone something for so long,” he added.
An expert on conditions of anonymity stated that the bodies would get mummified and vital information lost if kept for so long. “With no autopsy for such a long time, there will no results into the case now and the bodies would be mummified,” he added.
While the delay in disposing off bodies continues, new bodies that are brought to the GMC morgue by the police have to be kept outside the cabinets, at times placed on a stretcher and left on the floor.
