Haridwar: Family members allege rats 'gnawed on' corpse in district hospital; vandalise, hold sit-in protest
Dec 06, 2025
Haridwar (Uttarakhand) [India], December 6 : The family members of a deceased person alleged that the corpse of their relative was gnawed by rats at a mortuary in a district hospital in Haridwar.
The family members vandalised the Haridwar district hospital on Saturday. They also held a sit-in protest at the site.
According to SP City Abhay Pratap Singh, "A body was kept in the mortuary of the district hospital. The family alleges that some parts of his eye were marked with a mark indicating an animal attack, which they said was a rat. Our primary task was to pacify the people and maintain peace. The District officer has formed a high-level committee, led by the ADM. Technical medical experts have also been included in the committee. The ACMO (Associate Chief Medical Officer) in charge here stated that the post-mortem is not yet complete."
Manoj Kumar, a family member, told ANI, "When I reached the hospital, I talked to the doctor. The doctor told me to take the body to the hospital, and that his postmortem will be done in the morning. Then I saw the body in the morning, rats had gnawed it. Those responsible for this should be suspended."
Further details awaited.
Similar incidents were also reported from Narwana Civil Hospital in Haryana. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on December 1 took suo motu cognisance of a media report, which stated that a dead body had been nibbled by rats in the mortuary of Narwana Civil Hospital in Haryana.
Reportedly, this was not the first incident involving the same hospital in Jind, Haryana.
The Commission observed that, if true, the contents of the news report raised serious concerns about human rights violations.
Therefore, it issued a notice to the Chief Secretary, Government of Haryana, calling for a detailed report on the matter within two weeks.
According to a media report from November 12, the hospital authorities claimed they had complained to the concerned company about the need to repair the mortuary freezer. Still, the company had not taken any action. However, a mesh has been installed in the mortuary freezer as a temporary measure to prevent rats from entering it.
