ANGUL: In less than a week, the gruesome act of gouging out eyes from dead body was repeated in Angul district headquarters hospital, putting the hospital authorities under the shadow of doubt.
Jambeswar Naik of Kusukila village met with an accident in Monnet plant here on Monday night when a pick-up van collided with his motorcycle. He was rushed to the district headquarters hospital but the doctors declared him bought dead.
ALSO READ: Protest over rape of 8-year-old in Odisha's Angul
His body was kept in the mortuary for post-mortem on Tuesday. In the morning when the body was taken out of the mortuary, his family members were shocked to find his right eye gouged out and blood coming out of the socket.
Protesting the incident, they staged a dharna in the hospital and demanded stringent action against the culprits. On being informed, administration and police officials rushed to the spot.
The dharna was withdrawn by the family members after they were assured of investigation into the incident.
ALSO READ: Opposition demands CM Naveen Patnaik's resignation over missing children in Odisha
An amount of Rs 30,000 was also provided to the family of the deceased from Red Cross and other funds. Angul SDPO Aswimi Kumar Sahu said police would investigate into the case after getting the post-mortem report.
On Friday last, both eyes of a dead five-year-old child were gouged out when it was being taken for post-mortem from the mortuary.
The child’s family members had ransacked the hospital and assaulted some medical staff in protest. Though four days have passed since the incident, the post-mortem report, which is with Director of Health, is yet to be made public.
Despite repeated attempts to contact CDMO Dr Pratap Behera to know the cause of similar incidents, he failed to respond. Meanwhile, the local BJP unit has called for Angul bandh on Wednesday.
Condemning the incidents, former MP Rudra Narayan Pany demanded stern action against those involved in the acts.