G Virat Singh/ENS

Bangalore, Feb 14: Death, the ultimate leveller, does not free one from exploitation by unscrupulous cops. For once, no one complains. A racket in unclaimed bodies is flourishing in Karnataka.

Bodies recovered by the police are said to be going straight to private medical colleges and not government hospital mortuaries.

The police department is expected to hand over the decomposed bodies found in public places to the local government hospital.

If a body is unclaimed, it should be notified in the crime gazette. If not claimed even after 15 days, the body is disposed of by the civic authorities.

However, unclaimed bodies in good condition are embalmed and given to government medical colleges free of cost for dissection and anatomy studies.

Surplus bodies can be sold to the private medical colleges for Rs 10,000 each.

About 6,000 candidates are admitted to medical colleges and 2600 to dental colleges every year in Karnataka.

A batch of ten students require one body for dissection in the first year medical course.

However, just one body is enough for a batch of 150 dental students as their studies are confined to the head and neck region.

Going by these norms, medical and dental colleges in the state need at least 600 bodies every year.

Enquiries by this correspondent revealed that many private colleges were getting the unclaimed bodies with police help. Some private colleges depend on body donors.

According to Dr Roopa Kulkarni, Professor and HoD of Anatomy at the MS Ramaiah Medical College, her department’s requirement is met mostly through donation.

Bodies are purchased from the mortuaries if donor bodies are not available, she said.

According to Dr M K Sudarshan, principal of Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), his Institute had no problem getting bodies.

“We get information from the local police about unclaimed bodies on streets and arrange to remove them,” Sudarshan added.

Sources in the autonomous St John’s Medical College also admitted that the local police help them getting unclaimed bodies. The police are paid Rs 1000 to Rs 2000 per body.

This act of the police violates what has been specified in sub section 2 of Rule 4 of the Karnataka Anatomy Act 1957, stating that the officer who takes possession of the body should hand it over to the local government hospital.