RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, Aug.6: Dr. Jayati Simlai, the director of State run mental asylum, Ranchi Institute of Neuropsychiatry and Allied Sciences (RINPAS), has knocked the door of Jharkhand police for a thorough probe into matter of recovery of a dead mouse in the food served to patients on August 4.
Dr Simlai, who hogged limelight after a RINPAS inmate died two months after getting knocked by her car, registered an FIR at the Kanke police station hinting a smear campaign against her and her institute. She, hinting at a smear campaign to defame her, requested the police to take proper action according to law in the matter.
The director with her complaint annexed the internal inquiry report naming the suspects. She in her complaint pointed out that information regarding dead mice in food was first made viral with photographs on social media and then it was informed to the authority for proper action.
She said a five-member team of the administrative officers headed by medical superintendent Dr Vinod Kumar Mahato investigated the matter and the team observed that nails and skin hair of the mouse were intact. Thus she hinted to police that the possibility of mixing dead mice in the prepared food cannot be ruled out.
The five-member committee comprised medical superintendent Dr Vinod Kumar Mahto as its chairman and four members included Dr J.C.Niranjan, Dr Deepawali, Dr Rajni Lal, and a senior accounts officer Awadh Kishore Pandey.
The kitchen staff showed the committee a dead mouse which was intact and its size was between two to three inches. Its nails and skin hair were in the right condition.
After the probe team went to the Half Way Home where the mouse was recovered from serving food, it became clear to it that the ward attendant responsible for bringing food from the kitchen did not go to bring the food. The Half Way Home staff did not give information to the officer in charge of the Half Way Home. The officer in charge got information from another source. Ward staff Vivek Roy clicked photos and sent them to many others. The Half Way Home patients did not consume vegetables.
The probe team concluded that the possibility of mixing a mouse from external sources can not be ruled out. The ward staff are responsible for the same after they bring food from the kitchen.
RINPAS sources said an autopsy of the mouse was also done at Ranchi Veterinary College to ensure whether the mouse was cooked with food or a killed mouse was dropped in the food.
Officer-in-charge of Kanke police station, Brij Kumar confirmed the action but expressed his inability to give any conclusive statement into the matter.
“Following a complaint from the director a probe has been started into the matter. We in our primary investigation observed that after she became director, complaints against her started surfacing all of a sudden. However, it will be too early to give any conclusive statement on the matter” OC Kumar said.
A RINPAS insider said if the police probe the case professionally, the rivalry angle will become clear and that will be in the interest of all.
