Police shift Dr Preethi\'s body from NIMS to Gandhi Hospital amidst resistance
HYDERABAD: Amidst stiff resistance from family members and relatives, police forcefully shifted Dr Preethi’s body from NIMS to Gandhi hospital for postmortem examination in the early hours of Monday.
From the time her death was officially announced by NIMS administration at around 9.20pm, the hospital premises charged up, with family members and tribal organisations putting up their demands.
Despite repeated requests, when a proper assurance was not given, the family decided to stay put in the hospital with Preethi’s body. At one point during the midnight on Sunday, when the hospital staff reportedly threatened them of packing the body and taking it out, an argument broke out between the family and the college staff.
Even after this, police managed to bring out her body on a stretcher, but with stiff resistance from the family, they were forced to retreat and the body was taken back to the RICU where she was under treatment from February 22.
Even as police led the discussions with the family members to proceed for the PME, family members refused to budge. It is learnt that in the process, the protestors took away the ambulance key and police had to arrange another vehicle immediately.
Around 2 am on Monday, her body was brought out of NIMS and shifted to Gandhi hospital for PME, where a team of doctors conducted the process amid tight security. The hospital was sealed and only a few close family members were allowed to the mortuary while the PME was conducted.
After the PME which lasted for over two hours, family members expressed their wish to shift the body to their residence in Boduppal as it was still night, but their requests were turned down and the body was shifted directly to their native village Girnitanda in Jangaon district. It was learnt that family members requested the cops at least for a stopover at their Boduppal residence for a couple of hours, but this too was deftly turned down and a convoy of police vehicles escorted the ambulance carrying the body and the family members directly to Girnitanda, for the final rites.
Family members expressed dissatisfaction about how they were forced to their village. “There is no consent of the family from the time the incident came out. Her treatment, procedures, shifting the body for PME and then for final rites, happened without our consent. For everything they said they do not have orders. We wish they show the same seriousness and commitment in getting strict punishment to all those responsible for Preethi’s death,” they said.
It was also found that after the PME at Gandhi hospital was completed, her body was transported in one ambulance, while her parents and other family members were forced to travel home in police vehicles. Except Preethi's body, no other family members were allowed into the ambulance till it reached their native.
