Gold jewellery ‘stolen’ from Covid victim’s body

Gold jewellery ‘stolen’ from Covid victim’s body

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bhopal:31.05.2021 

Jewellery worth Rs 1.5 lakh went missing from a 55-year-old Covid-19 victim at a private hospital in Bhopal on April 22. A case has been registered at Kolar police station on Saturday after the son of deceased approached CM Helpline.

Sarthak, 25, who is a law student and a resident of Kamla Nagar locality, told TOI that on April 17, he admitted his mother Alpana, 55, to a private hospital in Kolar after she tested Covid positive. “My mother’s condition was stable when he admitted her, but with each passing day, her condition deteriorated. On the day of my birthday on April 22, I was informed that she has succumbed to Covid,” said Sarthak. When he went to the hospital, he was shocked to find that the gold and silver ornaments including, mangalsutra, bangles, earrings and nose ring were missing from her body.

He said that when he enquired about the jewellery from hospital management, they gave him “fake” ornaments wrapped in a plastic bag, adding that without raising any further questions he took her mother’s body for funeral ceremony. Hospital management refused to comment.

“After13 days, when he approached Kolar police station to lodge a complaint, they asked him to wait outside citing Covid protocol. He then, approached CM Helpline and got registered a complaint after 24 days” said Joshi adding that he was regretting his decision to admitting his mother at such a hospital.

Police said that a case of theft has been registered and investigations are underway.

Notably, it was the same private hospital that was in news for black marketing of Remdesivir and hospital staffers were booked by the police for Remdesivir injections and to administer only saline to Covid patients for whom the injection the brought for.