Man declared dead by Rajasthan hospital shows signs of life on funeral pyre, dies hours later | Jaipur News – Times of India

The man showed signs of life on his funeral pyre, exposing a shocking case of a fake post-mortem conducted without an actual examination.

JAIPUR: A 25-year-old mentally challenged man was wrongly pronounced dead by doctors in the govt-run Jhunjhunu district hospital and the ‘body’ released for cremation after a fake post-mortem on Thursday afternoon. The faux pas was exposed when the man showed signs of life on his funeral pyre just before the cremation, around three hours later in the evening.
He was rushed back to Jhunjhunu’s BDK Hospital, which then referred him to Jaipur’s SMS Hospital in a critical condition late night. Unfortunately, the man died at 5.30am on Friday before reaching the SMS Hospital.
On charges of negligence, the health department suspended BDK Hospital’s principal medical officer Dr Sandeep Pachar, community health centre (CHC) medical officer Dr Yogesh Kumar Jakhar and BDK Hospital medical officer Dr Navneet Meel. The suspended doctors’ have been asked to mark their attendances in Jaisalmer (Dr Pachar), Barmer (Dr Jakhar) and Jalore (Dr Jalore) on Friday.
Jhunjhunu collector Ramavatar Meena told TOI, “A false report was prepared of the post-mortem that was done on papers only; it was not conducted physically. Without performing the post-mortem, the report on cause of death was issued.”
The Jhunjhunu hospital’s post-mortem report in possession of TOI reads, “Cause of death is respiratory failure due to lung disease like COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) TB (tuberculosis), as per previous treatment record.” The time of death in the fake report was noted as 1.50pm, Thursday. Health department’s principal secretary Gayatri Rathore said a three-member committee has been constituted for conducting a thorough investigation into the incident. The panel under Dr Narrottam Sharma, joint director of Jaipur zone, has received instructions to present its findings within seven days. The victim, Rohitash Kumar, was inmate of ‘Maa Sewa Sansthan’, a shelter home for mentally challenged persons in Adarsh Nagar area of Jhunjhunu since Sept 2024. The state social justice and empowerment department said Kumar was admitted to the shelter home by the police. Department’s deputy director in Jhunjhunu, Pawan Poonia said, “Kumar was admitted to the care home by the Baggad police mentioning that he was a destitute and mentally challenged.”
He added, “On Thursday, he suffered epileptic seizures following which he was admitted to the Jhunjhunu district hospital.” According to investigation done by the district administration, Kumar was found unconscious due to epileptic seizures at 1.30pm and taken to the BDK hospital, where doctors performed CPR on him, and seeing a flat line in ECG, declared him dead. After the post-mortem (done on papers only), at 5.05pm, he was handed over to the shelter home for the final rites. When the matter hit headlines on Friday, some people claiming to be Kumar’s relatives approached the authorities. His post-mortem at Jaipur’s SMS Hospital was, therefore, withheld on Friday. SMS Hospital medical superintendent Sushil Bhati said, “Since it is a sensitive matter, a medical board will be constituted for the post mortem. Till Friday afternoon, Kumar was being treated as orphan and homeless but the police later informed us that some relatives have contacted the authorities. Now, a proper ‘panchnama’ (police record of five witnesses) will be done and only then his postmortem will be conducted. Currently, we have kept his body in the mortuary.”
When TOI contacted, in-charge of the shelter home, Banwari Lal Saini said, “I was at a marriage on Thursday. I reached here on Friday, and after talking to the staff, I will inform you of the entire episode.” The district collector said, “We have sent our teams to the shelter home to conduct an investigation into its functioning.”