Missing eyes from women's corpse: Two doctors arrested in UP

Badaun: Two doctors in Uttar Pradesh's Badaun district have been charged with the sale of human organs.

Two Provincial Medical Services (PMS) doctors have been arrested after eyes of a woman’s corpse were found missing.

An FIR has been registered against Mohammed Owaish and Arif Hussain at the Civil Lines police station, Badaun.

The doctors have been sent to jail after a court of chief judicial magistrate allowed their judicial custody.

The police action has invited sharp criticism from PMA doctors’ association questioning the doctors’ arrest when a magisterial enquiry is pending.

The district police are currently probing the rather puzzling case of missing eyes of a woman’s body from the Badaun government medical college.

Inspector in-charge of Civil Lines police station, Gaurav Bishnoi said a newly married woman Pooja Maurya had committed suicide after a spat with her husband Juginder at her house on December 10 under Mujariya police station limits.

“Her body was placed in a fridge of the medical college mortuary and the postmortem examination was held on Monday after which the body was sent to her maternal family for cremation. The woman’s family members spotted her missing eyes before the cremation and reported the matter to the police and district administration,” he said.

He said the second post-mortem of the woman’s body was conducted by a panel of three doctors on the direction of District Magistrate Manoj Kumar after which an FIR was registered on the complaint of woman’s brother Pramod Maurya against accused doctors and pharmacist for the missing eyes.

“During initial investigation, the statements of two doctors, who conducted the first postmortem examination, pharmacists and other mortuary staff involved in the postmortem process, were recorded. Their statements suggested that the eyes of the woman were missing before the examination and the doctors spotted it but did not inform the family of the deceased to avoid any trouble. They handed over the body after packing it,” said the inspector.

“Even in this case, the doctors would have informed it in the postmortem report, but they did not follow the procedure and it makes a case of negligence,” he added.

The magisterial inquiry report in the case will come on Friday, he said.

The president of PMS doctors’ association, Amit Kumar Varshney met District Magistrate Kumar and expressed his displeasure over the treatment of doctors as criminals and their arrest before the magisterial enquiry could be completed.

IANS with edits