A pack of dogs reportedly attacked and killed a 70-year-old woman who had strayed and gone missing from a government hospital in Rajgarh in Madhya Pradesh on March 22. It is believed that she may have wandered out at night and the dogs may have attacked her then. This is the second time such an incident has happened in 2017 and the fifth time within the last 10 months.
According to the Times of India, a few sanitation workers found the remains of the woman's body in the backyard of the hospital when they went to look for the source of the foul smell that had been troubling patients and doctors since a few days. Kotwali police station in-charge Mukesh Gaur said that only the "head and some upper body parts are left. The rest has been eaten up by the animals."
The police and hospital authorities are yet to ascertain whether the woman was alive when she was attacked by the dogs. Signs of the victim's body being dragged five to seven feet were also found.
What is rather shocking is that the hospital authorities were not aware that the woman was missing until they found the grisly remains of her body in the backyards of the hospital premises on Sunday. According to an official, not much of the woman's body was left for post-mortem. She was identified from her purse and pieces of her sari and sweater.
The grandson of Bismillah Bai, the victim, said that she lived in the Kumbhraj village of the state's Guna district. "She came with us to Rajgarh on Urs and refused to go back, saying she wanted to stay here for a couple of days. When she didn't return home, we came back to look for her. We were searching for her even today when we got the call from police," Mohammed Nameem, the grandson, told the daily.
Pointing out that the hospital should have been alert, the police official said: "How did she end up in the backyard of the ward where she was admitted? Why wasn't any information given to police after she went missing? And what did the authorities do to trace her? These are some of the aspects we are investigating."
The administration has ordered an investigation into the matter by the sub divisional magistrate, TOI reported.
