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On 8 September, the Harayana government announced that it would probe whether legal formalities were followed before the Dera Sacha Sauda “donated” four cadavers of its followers to a private medical institute in Lucknow this year.
Anil Vij, the Haryana Health Minister, said that the Director-General (Health Services) has been asked to conduct a “thorough inquiry” into the supply of the bodies, allegedly without death certificates, from 1 January to 31 August to the GCRG Institute of Medical Sciences for anatomical studies, reported the Indian Express.
The probe was announced on the day when the Haryana police and paramilitary forces launched a search operation at the sect’s headquarters in Sirca.
Officials of the GCRG Institute, located 27 km from Lucknow, confirmed that they received 14 cadavers without death certificates from the Dera Sacha Sauda. However, the institute was in possession of ID proof and other documents to validate the donation. Officials also claimed that “several other medical colleges across the state” also benefited from this “service”.
This comes after skeletons were discovered in the sect’s headquarter’s premises on 8 September.
A day before the search operation at the Dera, the sect’s mouthpiece, Sach Kahoon, admitted that human remains were buried inside the premises.
Some followers, who are no longer a part of the sect, alleged that Ram Rahim got those who opposed him murdered and buried them inside the campus.
In another report, the Dera newspaper spoke about human organ trafficking and how organs were voluntarily donated to the sect. However, these organs are given to medical colleges for anatomical research after following legal procedure.
The manager of marketing and public relations of the GCRG Institute said:
On the lack of death certificates, he said:
Only payment expected was money for the transportation of the corpses from different parts of Haryana and Punjab to the institute, which sometimes went up to Rs 20,000, sources said.
Sukhmandar Singh from Sirsa’s Kariwali is the son of Sat Singh, a Dera follower whose body was brought to the Lucknow Institute on 18 March.
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