The preliminary findings of the Medico Legal Institute (MLI), which investigated bones seized from Ratlam Christian Hospital over the past two days, suggest that the missionary institution could be the victim of witchhunting.

A number of bones had been found from an underground chamber in a little-used part of the hospital campus on Saturday.

The bones were sent for investigation after the local media went into a frenzy comparing Ratlam to Nithari, calling the 49-bed hospital a graveyard. Saffron activists took to the streets. demanding immediate closure of the hospital and banishing missionaries from the area.

But sources in MLI told The Indian Express that the hospital can, at best, be accused of negligence in its disposal of body parts or foetuses on campus.

The bones belong to at least 14 foetuses, as a corresponding number of right scapulae have also been found. Five bone samples belonging to persons in the age group of 50 — 65 were also found. The latter, said MLI director D K Satpathy, were amputated limbs.

Determining the sex of the foetuses is very difficult, said Satpathy. He will ask institutes in Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chandigarh if they can separate the DNA from the brittle bones, which will make it possible to determine sex. “But this is a very remote possibility,” he admitted. The bones could have been buried anytime in the past six years.

Under pressure from the local media and saffron activists, the administration acted hastily, without waiting for the institute’s report. Hospital superintendent Patience Williams and sweeper Jagram were sent to jail for burying bodies on campus.

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