It has all the ingredients reminding one of The Coma, a 1977 novel authored by Robin Cook which dealt with illegal organ harvesting. Tamil Nadu has been shocked by the seizure of a dead body and two aged persons from an ambulance last Tuesday at Kanchipuram, 75 km from Chennai.
The investigation by various Government departments, including police led them to an orphanage at Paleswaram village by name light for the Blind owned and operated by St John’s Hospice and has given rise to chilling questions which remain unanswered.
The locals heard the wailing of the aged persons from the ambulance owned by St John’s Hospice and they made the vehicle to stop. When they opened the rear door of the ambulance they were in for a shock. The van was jam-packed with fruits, vegetables, a dead body covered in a blanket, an old man and a woman.
The driver of the vehicle told the police that the aged persons and the commodities were being transported to the high-security orphanage.
The district officials were taken aback when they searched the premises of the orphanage. A massive network of storage vaults awaited them.
“The dead bodies are buried in these vaults which are against the ethics prescribed by the Church.” said a police officer probing the issue.
But BJP national secretary H Raja has some startling disclosures to make. “The three persons who intercepted the vehicle and brought out the truth have been arrested and remanded. But no action has been taken against the pastor who is the brain behind the hospice”, tweeted Raja.
He said there are nearly 100 concrete vaults in the hospice where more than 1500 dead bodies have been buried since 2007. The locals had complained in 2012 itself about foul smell emanating from the vaults but no action has been taken by the authorities to stop it,” he tweeted.
Raja said there was possibility of organ harvesting taking place in the premises and it could be brought out only by an investigation by a team of specialists and experts.
“The local people told me that bones harvested from the bodies are exported by the hospice authorities. The hospice management is
getting funds from abroad,” said his tweet.
Thomas, who is in charge of the hospice, told reporters that the institution was man for old and destitute persons and also for orphans.
“There is nothing illegal in the way we dispose the dead bodies. This is being followed in Kerala as it has become difficult to find out new land to be used as cemetery,” said Thomas. But Raja counters the pastor by asking why the local body officials were not intimated about the death of the persons and how the hospice is disposing the skeletons.