the goan I network
PANAJI
Health Minister Vishwajit Rane publicly apologised to the family of Januz Gonsalves, the 24-year-old youth from Aldona whose body went missing at the GMC mortuary after staff handed it over mistakenly instead of Vishant Naik’s ‘unclaimed’ corpse for routine disposal.
“As the health minister, I profoundly apologise to the family of the boy,” Rane said at a hurriedly called press conference at which GMC Dean, Dr Pradip Naik and Medical Superintendent Dr S Bandekar, were also present.
Rane said, there can be no excuses for the goof-up and termed it “insensitivity” on the part of the Head of the Forensic Department, Dr Edmund Rodrigues and the two staffers.
“We will take the strict action. This cannot be tolerated. I have also asked the Dean to file an FIR for criminal negligence against Dr Edmund and the other two staffers,” Rane said.
Rane, who learnt of the incident on Saturday morning when an Editor of a local TV news channel called him for a comment, rushed to the GMC where he directed Dr Naik to conduct an enquiry.
On getting a report from Dr Naik, the Health Minister then directed the suspension of Dr Rodrigues and the two other staffers. Their suspension orders were issued by the administration on Saturday evening.
Rane said, a detailed inquiry will be conducted by the Health Secretary Ashok Kumar which he expects to be concluded in a week’s time.
Further action will taken only after the report of Kumar’s probe is submitted, Rane said.
