They used tragedy to make money

The man who exposed three policemen who had sold a dead body to a private medical college had no idea what he had stumbled upon when he wrote his report.

They used tragedy to make money

Someone working in St John's Hospital knew theu00a0 'unidentified' dead man, and a forensic expert at Victoria Hospital wrote a damning autopsy report. That's how four crooked policemen lost their jobs

The man who exposed three policemen who had sold a dead body to a private medical college had no idea what he had stumbled upon when he wrote his report.

Dr P K Devadas, head of the department of forensic science at Victoria Hospital, told MiD DAY: "I just did my duty."

A series of such coincidences led to the indictment of the policemen who had suppressed the murder of a 55-year-old man so that they could sell his body and make some money.

When these pieces of the jig-saw puzzle came together, it became apparent that the Madivala police had used a tragedy to make money on the sly.

City police commissioner Shankar Bidari announced yesterday that the government had dismissed inspector G M Kantharaju, sub-inspector Vijay Kumar, assistant sub-inspector Nanjundaiah and head constable Adi Raju on charges of selling a 55-year-old man's body to St John's Medical College for Rs 15,000.

The action surprised even the doctor who had written the forensic report. "I did not expect the government to act so fast. I feel sorry for the cops who have lost their jobs," Devadass said.

Crime unearthed

Anthony Babu, union leader at St John'su00a0 accidentally found the body of his friend Kaverappa in the hospital mortuary. His queries revealed that the hospital had bought the body from the Madivala police.

He told Kaverappa's son Venkatesh about the body, and he then went to the police station, only to find shuffling, embarrassed policemen there. They demanded Rs 7,000 from him, but when he could muster only Rs 5,000, they said they would send the body to Victoria Hospital.

Something fishy

At the hospital, Kantharaju insisted the post mortem be done right away. Devadas sensed something fishy and said he would only do it the following day.

His report stated that the body had been embalmed the college had treated it to preserve it u00e2u0080u0093 before it was brought to the hospital. He also said the death was due to "shock and haemorrhage as a result of multiple stab injuries".

His observations led to the nailing of the policemen.

Real story

It later turned out that Kaverappa had been found murdered in a lodge with 32 stabs on his body.

Instead of lodging a murder case, police had registered an unnatural death case and sold the body to Dr Manjunath, the forensic director at St John's Hospital.

Kantharaju claimed, "We had got a post mortem done, and later, we came to know that he had been murdered. We took up a murder case on August 10."

Later, the police 'investigated' the case and arrested the watchman of Kids Garden School, adjacent to the lodge where Kaverappa was found dead. He is in judicial custody now.

What the rules say
Police first have to take photos of an unidentified dead body. If there are stab injuries, they have to register a murder case and shift the body to Victoria Hospital for four days.

Meanwhile, the picture of the deceased has to be sent to all police stations and newspapers. If there is no response, an autopsy can be done at the hospital.

After that procedure, the body is sent to the Government Medical College. If the college does not want the body, it can be sent to other authorised colleges with the medical director's permission. Going by a 2004 government notification, St John's is not authorised to buy a body directly from anyone.

Prof Imtiyazul Haq, head of the department of anatomy, Bangalore Medical College, quoted a government order which said the BMC alone needs 20 to 25 bodies for teaching.

"If we have excess, we give the bodies to private colleges for a prescribed fee of Rs 10,000. However, we have not been getting the required number of late and there is no question of giving it to other colleges," Dr Haq added.

St John's defence
"Police told me it was an unidentified person who had died an unnatural death. So we bought the body. We were not aware that it was a murder case," said Dr Manjunath, forensic director at St John's Hospital.

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