'Organ theft' at hosp in Odisha: Post-mortem doctor dismisses allegations 

No organ was harvested from the body of Babulal Diggal at a Cuttack-based private hospital, said Dr Bishal Dora who performed the post-mortem. 

The family members of Babulal, who died while undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Cuttack, had brought organ theft allegations against the hospital authorities. What prompted them to believe so is that Babulal had suffered head injuries in a road accident. But at the time of the final rituals, they spotted stitch marks on the corpse’s abdomen. 

However, on the basis of the allegation, Baliguda Police had exhumed the body and sent it to Baliguda sub-divisional hospital for post-mortem. Dr Bishal Dora had performed the autopsy. 

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“I found the deceased’s organs intact. He had head injuries and incision on the abdomen was a normal procedure,” said Dr Dora. 

On the other hand, the Private Hospital Association of Odisha in a presser underlined the necessity of proper investigation into allegations before telecast of such reports against any private hospitals. 

Meanwhile, the hospital authorities admitted the fault of handing over the body to the family members without post-mortem. 
However, the Cuttack Sadar police will investigate the allegations.  

“We only received information from Rudra Hospital about 42-year-old Babulal Diggal undergoing treatment. Later, after learning about the incident from Baliguda, we started an investigation and came to know that the hospital hadn’t informed us about Diggal’s death on October 16 evening. Our further investigation is underway,” said Umakanta Pradhan, ACP, Zone-IV, Cuttack.