Dead woman's family spends night outside mortuary awaiting autopsy, alleges delay by police

The body of a woman was allegedly left lying for 24 hours at Bargarh District Headquarters Hospital due to a delay in post-mortem.

As per reports, Premashila Rana had allegedly ended her life by consuming poison at her home in Khalabahal village under Gaisilet block on Wednesday. Her family members brought her body to the Bargarh DHH for post-mortem at 10 am on the same day.

They reportedly informed the police at 12 pm. However, according to her family, the police reached the hospital at 5:30 pm after a delay of around 5 hours and 30 minutes.

The delay caused the post-mortem procedure to be postponed for the next day as the procedure could not be done at night.

Without finding any other way, Premashila’s family slept in front of the morgue overnight keeping the body there. The doctor came at 11 pm on Thursday following which the post-mortem was conducted.

The family alleged, had the police came to the hospital early and finished all the formalities, then the post-mortem would have been done on Wednesday itself.

“Our daughter-in-law had consumed poison. We brought her body to the hospital. We called the police, but they arrived late,” alleged a relative of the deceased.

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However, the police denied the allegation of responding late. Speaking to OTV, IIC of Melchamunda police station K Samaria said, “We received the information at 3 pm. The distance of Bargarh DHH from here is around 1 hour and 15 minutes. It took some time to inquest and it was 5pm by the time we finished the formalities.”

“The post-mortem cannot be done after 5pm. So it was done the next day. I was intimated about the case at 3pm. We have reached the spot and completed the formalities as fast as we could,” Samaria said.