Hyderabad: Spelt wrongly, body denied funeral

Hyderabad: What can possibly go wrong if you spell someone’s name, did you say? A lot, we can report. A delay, even denial of a funeral, for instance.

In Hyderabad, Rukkamma, who name was spelt wrongly as Sukamma, is still lying as a body in the mortuary at the Osmania General Hospital for the last two days, denied a last ceremony. Sixty-five-year old Rukkamma was admitted to the OGH with kidney problems. She underwent treatment at the hospital for a month.

A destitute, she breathed her last on October 31, Thur-sday. Having no relative, family member or frie-nd, members of an NGO, named Second Chance Trust (SCT), were her only attendants at the hospital. They had found her on the streets of Chaderghat after she had been abandoned there by her family. She was trying to survive on food and water given to her by passersby. Since no one came to take her back home, and she had been on the streets for more than five days, locals called the SCT, who took her to an old age home.

“During the time of rescue, we noted her name as Sukamma. At that time, she could not speak properly. There was an error in recording her name. After she was brought to the rescue home, cleaned, medicated and given proper nutrition for days, she gave us her Aadhaar card, in which, her name was registered as O. Rukkamma from Malakpet. She never wanted to go back to her family as her son had taken `30,000 from her before abandoning her on the streets,” said Jasper Paul, founder member of SCT.

During admission to OGH, the hospital took details from her Aadhaar card and registered a medico-legal case. She was admitted for a kidney ailment. At that time, the SCT didn’t object as they wanted to get her treated. Instead, after a month-long treatment, she died and post-mortem is compulsory in any medico-legal case. The autopsy department wanted the Aadhaar card and also the rescue letter from SCT. Diff-erent names in the Aadhar card and rescue letter led to an objection by the autopsy department, which checked both the documents.

Dr B. Nagendra, superintendent, OGH, said, “We are only following procedures. There is a change of name. We have to make inquires and be satisfied before we hand-over the body. Tomorrow, if her relatives come and claim the body, it would be a problem for us.”

The SCT members got a no-objection certificate from the Jawahar Nagar police station. A police constable came along with the SCT members to personally hand over the letter to the hospital. But the hospital has refused to hand over the body.

Mr Paul said that they have admitted the patient, taken care of her and arranged for the last rites. “The family never came to look for her all these days. Why would they come now? They are citing procedural delays in giving the body, when there are actually none,” Paul said.

He has appealed to higher officials in the state department through Twitter to handover the body so that her last rites can be performed.