Thiruvananthapuram: MCH staff steals dead woman’s chain

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A grade-II employee of the

medical college hospital

here was arrested for stealing a gold chain from a body that was being shifted to the morgue on Friday.

Police said Jayalekshmi, 35, of Panthalam was arrested after the relatives of the deceased, Radha, 26, found the chain, weighing 1.5 sovereign, missing and lodged a complaint.

The accused, employed at the medical college for the past two years, had been tasked with cleaning and scavenging, besides shifting bodies from the wards to the morgue.

Hospital superintendent Dr M S Sharmad, who suspended the accused under the directions of health minister K K Shailaja, said the institution has been maintaining a zero-tolerance policy towards such instances.

“A department-level inquiry has been launched and strict action would be taken against her,” the superintendent said.

The state human rights commission, too, has ordered a probe into the incident.

Medical college police said Jayalekshmi has been charged under Section 404 of the IPC (dishonest misappropriation of property possessed by a deceased person at the time of death).

Though bailable, it could get a maximum punishment of up to three years of imprisonment or fine, if proven guilty. She would be produced before a court on Saturday, police inspector K S Arun said, adding that the chain was recovered from her possession.

“During questioning, the woman said two weeks ago she was caught red-handed while stealing Rs 4,500 from a colleague. We contacted that employee, who refused to provide a statement or press charges against Jayalekshmi,” the officer said.

The deceased, Radha, was brought to the hospital around 7.30pm on Thursday, after she had collapsed outside her rented accommodation at Yamuna Nagar near

Manacaud

. She died of poisoning around 7.45am on Friday.

Police suspect that she had committed suicide.

Radha, who got divorced two months ago, hailed from Thiruchendur in Tamil Nadu, and had been living here with her mother Senthoorkani and eight-year-old daughter Praveena. The woman was unemployed.

Her relatives were in Thiruchendur to attend her brother Kannan’s wedding when she collapsed. The woman stayed back since she was menstruating.

Radha’s cousin, also named Kannan, said Fort police informed the family of her hospitalisation. When Kannan and her mother reached the hospital late on Thursday, she was in ICU.

The alleged theft happened while the body was being shifted to the morgue. After the relatives complained, the hospital superintendent ordered an inquiry by regional medical officer and psychiatrist G Mohan Roy. Though circumstantial evidence pointed towards Jayalekshmi, she refuted the charges, and the police were summoned.

“Our staff work hard to keep the hospital clean and hygienic and any measure to monitor their activities would amount to questioning their integrity. Installing cameras in wards and mortuary is also not possible as it would be intrusion into the privacy of individuals,” Dr Sharmad said.

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