Investigations into the death of 11 inmates— in the last two months alone— has uncovered a tale of mismanagement, complete apathy and an attempt to hide the truth Investigations into several previous deaths at Asha Kiran, the government-run home for the mentally challenged, are buried in official files. While the authorities claim that they are carrying out a probe into the 11 recent deaths, DNA found how officials made a mockery of the old cases. Documents show that there was a delay of up to three years, in some cases, in sending the viscera and tissue samples for tests to ascertain the exact reasons of the deaths. "Ideally, viscera samples should be immediately deposited and given for testing. If at all they are preserved, it's done for a maximum of three months. If delayed, the biological material gets degraded," said Dr Sudhir Gupta, Head of Department, Forensic Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). Investigations into the death of 11 inmates— in the last two months alone— has uncovered a tale of mismanagement, complete apathy and an attempt to hide the truth. DNA had found that that the inmates died of starvation as there was no specialised cook. Now, there is a deliberate bid to hide the cause of deaths. The probe into the recent cases is also slow as the post-mortem reports of only five deaths have reached the office of the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), who is carrying out the inquest proceedings. A recent probe revealed that the tissue and viscera samples of inmates who died in 2012, 2013 and 2014 were deposited in the Baba Saheb Ambedkar (BSA) hospital only on August 2016 and the receipt was submitted to the then SDM. These samples, numbering 22 in total —19 of which were deposited in 2016— were then left to languish there and were only uncovered after this recent tragedy. Medical experts say that due to the major delay in the inquiry, these samples cannot be treated as evidence now. The new SDM of Rohini, Santosh Kumar Rai, wrote a letter to Delhi police on January 12, pulling them up for the delay in submitting the inquiry report of the deaths. "The SHO shall depute the Information Officer responsible to collect the report and deposit the preserved viscera/tissue to the hospital within seven days from the date of post-mortem," the SDM said in a letter. A copy of the letter is with DNA. "On examination of several cases, it has been observed that the viscera and tissues preserved by doctors during post-mortem are not being deposited by police officials in the FSL/Histopathology department. In many cases, the viscera and tissue samples were reportedly not deposited to FSL/Histopathology department for many months due to which the cases got delayed," the letter said. Since 2001, 600 inmates have died in Asha Kiran and today 900 inmates are being taken care of by 215 staff when over 500 are required. The SDM has also written various letters to the Delhi police and the BSA Hospital, requesting them to expedite the process of collecting and depositing the viscera and tissue samples. In the letter, he has directed the Department of Forensic Medicine to provide the report within three days of the post-mortem. As per National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) guidelines, the inquest report, along with other documents, should reach the NHRC within two months of the death in the matter of custodial deaths, such as one in Asha Kiran. That it was not done raises serious questions. The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) has recently issued a notice to the Secretary of the Department of Social Welfare after its chief Swati Maliwal, along with other staff members, inspected the home. Following this, Delhi Chief Secretary MM Kutti, Secretary of Social Welfare Department, Dilraj Kaur, and Director DK Mishra visited Asha Kiran on Thursday. "The officers were extremely happy and even gave a thumbs up to the maintenance of the house," a staff from Asha Kiran Home had then told DNA.

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