HYDERABAD, July 15: The mystery behind the disappearance of auto driver Tajuddin's body from the Osmania General Hospital here is deepening, with investigating officials expressing suspicions that a major organ trade racket was behind the incident.The doubts have further gained ground as there is no entry about the receipt of the body in the Osmania mortuary records. At the same time, hospital records clearly show that Tajuddin came to the hospital on June 15 complaining of chest pain. He was admitted as an in-patient but died a few hours later. No foul play was suspected behind his death. Curiously, the duty doctor made it a "medico-legal case" but even then the police were not informed.On June 23, exactly a week after Tajuddin's death, his son was told by an autodriver that Tajuddin's vehicle was found in the parking zone of the Osmania hospital. The family members immediately rushed to the hospital, where they were told that his body was preserved in the mortuary.The next day, when the familyreturned to the hospital, they could not locate Tajuddin's body. The mortuary staff told them that the body had been buried by municipal employees on July 19 itself, along with 13 other unclaimed bodies. This led to angry protests by family members and a strike by auto drivers demanding that the body be traced.With trouble brewing, the graveyard where Tajuddin's body was believed to be buried was dug up. But there were no traces of Tajuddin's corpse. The matter was then taken to the High Court, which directed the CID to look into the case and submit a report on July 17.The family members have been alleging that the body was sold to a private medical college in Bangalore and the CID too suspects some kind of racket behind the incident.However, hospital superintendent T E Anandavalli contends that there was no foul play and that a clerk had informed the police about Tajuddin's death on June 15 evening itself. Police sources also confirm this. About the absence of any records in the mortuary about thebody, Anandavalli, who had only recently taken over as the hospital superintendent, said, "After this incident, it came to my notice that the mortuary staff have not been maintaining the records properly for several years."Hospital sources however maintain that a well-operated body-selling racket had been flourishing for several years. "Each body fetches anywhere between Rs 20,000 and Rs 40,000, depending upon the demand and the condition of the corpse. There is a strong nexus between private medical colleges, middlemen and some staff members of the hospital and mortuary. Corneas of unclaimed bodies are also being removed and sold to eye hospitals in a neighbouring state," one of them said.
