RANCHI, March 20: An epileptic woman who underwent treatment at Ranchi Mansik Arogyashala here for over a decade, was found dead behind the high walls of the hospital; She was discovered with her left eye perforated and a part of the flesh on her forehead hanging loose, according to police reports. The autopsy report is awaited by the police.47-year-old Shailendro Pande, a resident of Sambhalpur in Orissa, who was admitted by her parents at the RMA in 1987, remained in the ward for more that a decade apparently abandoned by her kin.
"She had recovered. We sent several letters to her parents apprising them of her recovery and requesting them to take her back home. But none of them ever responded," claimed a RMA official on the condition of anonymity.
On the morning of March 16 Panda's body was spotted at the female ward by the RMA inmates. "Her left eye was perforated. A part of flesh and skin in her temple were missing and blood was oozing out from there," reports the inquest report made by thepolice.
A source in the RMA who claimed to have examined Panda's body before it was sent to the Rajendra Medical College Hospital for a post-mortem attributed the cause of her death to cardiac failure. "There are many rodents inside the hospital. After her death the wild rats seemed to have perforated her eye and eaten away her temple," the source explained.
However the FIR filed in this connection by the RMA Superintendent A K Gupta at the Kanke Police station does not identify the cause of her death. Meanwhile, the RMA authorities have set up a panel to inquire into the case. "We will come to know the truth. Wait for the inquiry report," RMA Director K R Banerjee said.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
