Bones of infants found outside Christian hospital in Madhya Pradesh makes CNI see red

As many as 234 pieces of bones, including portions of foetus skulls, were dredged out from a sewage chamber at a missionary hospital compound and outside a doctor's house in Madhya Pradesh, February 21, giving rise to accusations of mass scale infanticide carried out surreptitiously by unscrupulous doctors of the hospital – allegations which the Church of North India (CNI) has vehemently denied.

Thirty bone pieces were found in an underground tank outside the house of the doctor, while 204 pieces of skeletal remains, including 73 pieces of skulls of foetus and newborn, were recovered from the sewage chamber of Ratlam Christian Hospital, police inspector S.S. Tomar said.

With the fresh find, as many as 767 pieces of bones and skulls have been recovered from the hospital since February 17, he said, adding the remains were being sent to medico–legal institute in Bhopal for tests.

Digging work was also carried out near ward 23 and 24 of the medical facility, he said.

According to police sources, the search was made following a tip–off that the hospital was conducting illegal abortions.

"The bones were found during a search of the Christian hospital on Saturday afternoon following a tip–off that the hospital was conducting illegal abortions and dumping the foetuses in the drains," said Ratlam Superintendent of Police (SP) Satish Saxena.

Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr. Patience Williams and sweeper Jagram were earlier arrested in connection with the incident but later released on bail, he said.

The District Court, while granting bail to the accused, also constituted a five–member committee to probe the matter and submit a report before February 25, he said.

The committee consists of a surgeon, pediatrician, gynecologist and two members of the state pollution–control board.

Saxena said action would be taken against the accused if warranted on the basis of the findings of the committee and laboratory tests on the bones.

The police officer said "prima facie findings" suggest the hospital failed to dispose of stillborn infants' bodies using a proper and mandatory bio–waste disposal system.

According to Saxena, his police team have scrutinised records seized from the hospital and claimed that 371 deliveries were performed at the medical facility in the last one year. Ten babies were stillborn, while 35 dilatation and curettage (DNCs) procedures were performed by the doctors during the period.

Claiming that burying bodies on the hospital premises was against the law, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Ratlam Range, Gaurav Kapoor said the area of search could be widened.

Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Health Minister Ajay Vishnoi said the bones could be of victims of "foeticide or infanticide."

However, he maintained that this incident should not be compared to the recent Nithari case in Uttar Pradesh where bones and human remains of missing children were recovered. In that incident, the master of the house behind which the bones were recovered and his servant were arrested. The servant has admitted to luring innocent children to the house before sexually assaulting them and killing them.

"It is not right to compare the incident with the one in Nithari where bones of missing children aged between one to 14 years were found. Here initial reports indicate foeticide or infanticide," Vishnoi explained, adding, "Only an in–depth inquiry can lead to any conclusion."

"We have sought complete details of the matter from the district administration and no one found guilty would be spared," Madhya Pradesh Women and Child Welfare Minister Kusum Mehdel said.

Ratlam District Collector J.L. Malpani has constituted a committee of five members from the medical fraternity to look into the matter.

The committee would mainly look into qualification of the health staff working at the hospital, the number of abortions conducted in the past year, the unnatural deaths of newborns, disposal of their bodies and whether directives for their cremation were followed by the staff or not.

"We have found 14 pieces of right scapula indicating that at least as many number of four to eight–month–old foetuses were buried at the Ratlam Christian Hospital," Madhya Pradesh Medic Legal Institute director D.K. Satpathy told the news agency, the Press Trust of India (PTI).

Four pieces of bones, probably amputated limbs of 55–65 year–old–persons, were also found in the samples, he said, adding the condition of bones suggest the burials were taking place for the last two years. Some pieces were about six months old.

The latest discovery came as the Indian government reportedly unveiled plans to set up a series of "orphanages" to tackle the growing problem of unwanted baby girls. The government on Sunday, February 18, said it was planning a "cradle scheme" to adopt girl children to check female infanticide. "We want to put a cradle...in every district headquarters," Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhury was quoted as saying by the PTI. "If you don't want a girl child, leave her to us."

The number of girls per 1,000 boys declined from 945 to 927 between 1991 and 2001 and many districts in the country routinely report only 800 girls born for every 1,000 boys, according to estimates.

"The question of female foeticide and infanticide is part of our investigation, as is illegal abortions," SP Satish Saxena said.

The area was sealed off and samples were sent to the state forensic laboratory in Bhopal for tests, Saxena said. Claiming that it was too early to conclude whether illegal abortions were performed at the hospital, he said its staff told investigating officers that a sweeper, entrusted with the responsibility of disposing bio–medical waste, had failed to carry out the chore.

However, District Vaccination Officer and Child Specialist R.G. Kaushal, whose advice was sought by the police, has ruled out the notion that the bones and skeletons were bio–medical waste. Skulls and bones from legs were also found which do not form part of hospital waste, he said.

Further, private nursing homes use incinerators provided by the government to dispose of bio–medical waste, he noted. The hospital's authorities were not available for comment.

Meanwhile, the inquiry committee headed by Civil Surgeon Dr. K.C. Pathak has recorded the statements of Hospital Superintendent Dr. Williams, doctors, the matron, sweeper Jagram and the hospital's business manager. The committee would record the statements of patients whose names were found in the hospital records for last one year and has taken the help of the police to trace them.

To a question about what conclusion he could draw prima facie after going through the records, Dr. Pathak said, "Illegal abortions are never shown on paper by anyone. We would have to find that out by tactfully speaking with the concerned staff and by a thorough scrutiny of the documents."

The civil surgeon maintained that all his findings would be reflected in the final report the committee would submit to the Collector.

The incident has evoked an outcry from different quarters, with Hindu radical groups demanding action against missionary–run hospitals across the state.

However, the Church of North India (CNI) and other Christian groups have denied the accusations, claiming that the hospital has become an unfortunate victim of a nefarious plan hatched by Hindu fundamentalists to malign the whole Christian community in Madhya Pradesh.

They admitted that the hospital at worst may not have completely complied by the rules regarding disposal of bio–medical wastes.

The hospital falls under the Church Of North India in Bhopal.

CNI Bishop Laxman L. Maida of Bhopal Diocese has called the entire incident an "anti–Christian conspiracy against missionaries and their services."

"This is a hundred year old hospital. It is also the cheapest in the district. The rates here are very nominal – just Rs. 30 for an OPD," Bishop Maida said.

"It is a very famous hospital in the area. It has seen its share of ups and downs, but is now doing well. We are unable to understand the entire incident – how old the bones were, were they of miscarriage fetuses etc.," he added.

"The investigation will be able to tell that. But the manner in which it is being highlighted by the media is suspect. It seems to be conspiracy by some quarters like the Bajrang Dal to damage the reputation of the hospital and the Christians in the state," the bishop said.

Reports of atrocities against the Christians are common from this state that has adopted a stringent anti–conversion law, after the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power.

"[This is a] false scandal blown out of proportion by the media and extremists," the CNI bishop said. "The Mission Hospital in Ratlam has honestly served the neediest people irrespective of creed for 100 years."

Bishop Maida claimed that the polythene bags with the remains which were discovered were due to "negligence of the sweeper and not illegal procedures of the hospital."

Rejecting the idea that the hospital carried out illegal abortion procedures, the bishop said, "Only when there is a question of saving the life of mother, the foetus is aborted or if there is a case where the child is found dead inside the womb, then it would be removed."

The CNI has decided to go public with its side of the story. It will also serve a memorandum to the district collector, the bishop said. "We will tell him that this is a conspiracy to malign us. A very routine case has been blown out of proportion with the live telecast and the media reports. It is a ploy to defame us," he said.

"I was inside the hospital when the Bajrang Dal activists were on a rampage shouting slogans, against Christians, that we convert and alleging feticide. We don't do abortions and we don't even have the machine," he added.

Suresh Carleton, spokesperson of Bhopal Diocese also suspected that the hospital was being "framed." He said a police team searched the hospital, February 17, and seized a few bones of stillborn babies buried in its compound. The following day they came with bulldozers and dug up more bones and "even opened the septic tank on the pretext of suspicion," he added. Carleton said that he suspected a pharmaceutical supplier, whose contract was rejected this year, to be behind the incident.

"Nothing was unusual" in finding the bones of stillborn babies, the CNI official maintained, explaining that as a cultural trait, parents do not accept the bodies of stillborn children. It then becomes the hospital's responsibility to dispose of these.

Several hospitals in the state do not have advanced bio–disposal systems and they bury stillborn babies within the compound. "Such bones could be found in any hospital" in the state, according to Carleton. He suggested some "vested interests" want to tarnish the image of the church institution that served people for over a century.

Backing his claim, a delegation of doctors met the District Magistrate on February 19 and urged him to take steps to stop the media from projecting the hospital negatively. The delegation also reportedly told the Magistrate that it is "a natural process in every hospital to dispose of the bodies of stillborn babies when their parents refuse" to accept them.

Meanwhile, the CNI Synod, the executive committee of the Church of North India, held a high–level meeting before coming out in the open with a public statement that it condemned "any unethical practice in the church run institutions and specially the brutal act of killing in Christian Hospital, Ratlam as published by the media."

Regretting the hostile and defamatory stance taken by the local media, the Synod stated that it has asked Dr. Williams to proceed on leave to facilitate impartial enquiry.

The CNI has formed an independent Enquiry Committee comprising of Bishop Prabal Datta, Bishop of Durgapur, Dr. Sudhir Joseph, Director, St. Stephen's Hospital, Delhi and Mr. P. K. Zacharia, IRS (Retd.) from Bombay, to investigate the matter thoroughly and report to the Moderator of CNI for further action.

The Catholic Church of India has also come out in the open to support its Anglican counterpart. "It is a normal thing, every hospital is supposed to have a biomedical disposal system for disposing waste such as in case of delivery, operations including amputation. At best we can say they may not have followed the rules hundred percent," spokesperson of the Council of Bishops' of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh (CBMP) Fr. Anand Muttungal said.

"It seems to be a planned strategy for maligning the community and the services they are doing. Christians are known for their selfless services. By doing that you are cutting their base. This can be the work of fundamentalist elements in Ratlam," the priest added.

For the lapse on the hospital's part "maximum they can impose a fine," the Catholic priest asserted, hinting that the government machinery was "playing along" with Hindu radicals, who want "to defame the wonderful health service the church provides to the poor and the needy."

The present controversy is "a well–orchestrated conspiracy to portray the much–acclaimed health services of the church in a poor light," he said.

"Who will take the responsibility to dispose of the stillborn babies if their parents did not want to take them?" he asked, appealing to the government to end the harassment of the hospital.

Sajan K. George, president of Christian advocacy group, Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) has also supported the hospital authorities, suggesting that militant Hindu groups Bajrang Dal and Dharam Sena were involved in spreading "false" accusations against Christian doctors.

"One year ago on a similar charges the radical government in [the town of] Kota [in the state of] Rajasthan tried to shut down the mission group, Emmanuel Mission International (EMI)," he recalled. "Its leaders, Bishop M.A. Thomas and [his son] Samuel Thomas were arrested."

The hospital has also found support from the Union Minister of State for Agriculture Kantilal Bhuria, who hails from Jhabua, a district with predominantly tribal Christian population.

Visiting the hospital site, February 21, Bhuria inspected the place where the bones were discovered and quizzed the hospital management who apprised him of their side of the story.

Later, speaking to media persons, Bhuria named Manish Sharma, a medical shop owner, and Mithilesh Bavecha, a correspondent with Hindi daily Nai Dunia, and alleged that the whole matter was their doing to defame the hospital at Ratlam.

However, the Minister changed his stance soon when the journalist denied any link with the Hindu radical group, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and claimed that he had said only what the hospital management told him.

Later, speaking to Hindustan Times, Bhuria said, "It was the hospital people who told me that they had some row with the medical shop owner on the issue of encroachment. It's they who told me that Sharma is a RSS man."

When asked what his own opinion was about the whole episode, Bhuria replied, "The investigation is going on. What can I say before the reports are out?"

He, however, sought to dismiss the very findings of the bones from hospital premises saying the hospital is more than 100 years old and such burials are commonplace in old hospitals. "Moreover, nobody has ever complained about the hospital management," he maintained.