Mysuru: The dead body of a 21-year-old girl was exhumed on Friday, 26 days after her death. She died due to infection after she was administered an injection by a doctor following fever in H.D. Kote. After exhumation, doctors conducted a post-mortem.

Ankusha from Kalahundi of Hampapura village, who had just completed B.Sc. degree from Maharani’s Science College and was preparing for her B.Ed. course admission, died to infection following an injection administered by Dr. Raju at Hampapura in H.D. Kote. After her death, the Police took up a suo-moto complaint against the doctor, allegedly a quack.

The doctor is on the run now and he has vacated the clinic at Hampapura and has removed the clinic’s board. The Police have registered a case under IPC Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder). The place where Ankusha was injected became a lump and puss started oozing out. She was shifted to a private hospital in Mysuru and she died on Nov. 13.

Ankusha’s parents did not lodge a Police complaint and went ahead and cremated her after the doctor promised compensation. But the H.D. Kote Police voluntarily took up the complaint after media published reports of the girl’s death.

After registering the case, H.D. Kote Inspector A.C. Ashok appealed to the Court to permit the Police to conduct a post-mortem as the body was buried without proper Police procedures. Following the Court clearance, the body was exhumed and the post-mortem was conducted in the presence of Tahsildar, Anatomy Professor from Mysore Medical College and Research Institute.

Alerted by Ankusha’s death, Mysuru District Health Officer (DHO) Dr. B. Basavaraju ordered raids on clinics run by quacks and closed five of them. The DHO said that as per the present Karnataka Private Medical Establishments (KPME) Act, there is a provision to legally deal with quacks.

“Dr. Raju is still absconding and the Police are looking out for him. We are keeping a watch on all clinics in and around H.D. Kote and have even warned  Ayurveda practitioners against prescribing Allopathy drugs. People can approach the Police in case they come across quacks,” he added.