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.

The hospital’s explanation that the bones could belong to stillborn babies or aborted fetuses found no takers in the administration. The hospital told the police that parents often refuse custody of stillborn babies and they had to ask the sweeper to dispose of them.

According to hospital records, 371 deliveries were registered in 2006. Out of these, 10 were stillborn. And there is proper record of 31 abortions out of the 35 the hospital carried out last year.

Ratlam SP Satish Saxena said the duo has been booked under Section 318 of the IPC. “The hospital is authorised to only dispose of bio-medical waste and not bodies or body parts,” he said.

Williams, who was released on bail, alleged that there was a conspiracy against the hospital. “We know who is behind it and we will soon come out with details,” she said.

The Indian Medical Association’s Ratlam chapter submitted a memorandum to the district collector in support of the hospital.

Former president of the Ratlam chapter J M Subhedar said it is only in the past four years that the norms for disposal of bio-medical waste and body parts are being strictly implemented. “Till then, it was a standard practice for hospitals to leave the job to sweepers who often carried out the burial in hospital compounds,” he said.