The two inmates were taken to Patna Medical College on Friday but were declared dead on arrival.
Highlights
- 40-year-woman and 16-year-old girl at Patna shelter died on Friday
- Police say shelter officials and hospital didn't inform them of deaths
- Cops looking out for a doctor and a nurse, more shelter staff questioned
Two employees of a shelter for women with mental disabilities in Patna were arrested last evening after the death of two inmates - a 16-year-old girl and a 40-year-old woman - on Friday. Police say the officials of the state-run facility and Patna Medical College did not inform them about the deaths and went ahead with the post-mortem.
While the body of the 16-year-old has been cremated on Saturday, a second post-mortem was done on the 40-year-old woman. The woman is likely to be cremated today or tomorrow.
The two inmates were taken to the hospital on Friday, but the doctors declared them dead on arrival, police said. Over 70 inmates stay at the the shelter which opened on May 1.
Police believe that he two staff members arrested yesterday were negligent in giving medical care to the two inmates and in taking them to hospital on time. Police are looking out for a doctor who treated inmates at the shelter and a nurse, who are also named in the complaint.
The inmates died of diarrhoea, the shelter officials told the police.
After the police got to know about the incident on Sunday, a board was formed to look into the medical histories of the inmates. "It was a lapse on part of the shelter home authorities and the hospital administration as neither of the two informed the police stations concerned before the post-mortem was conducted. We came to know about the deaths only this morning (Sunday morning)," NH Khan, Patna Inspector General of Police said.
More workers of the shelter in Patna - employed by an NGO - are being questioned by the police.
"I got to know about this incident yesterday (Sunday). I spoke to the district magistrate of Patna who said there the deaths occurred due to lack of proper treatment. But the case is not very clear. Investigation is underway to find out more details," Bihar's Social Welfare Minister Krishnanandan Prasad Verma told NDTV.
The Patna shelter deaths have emerged at a time when the CBI is investigating the sexual abuse of over 30 girls a shelter home in Bihar's Muzaffarpur.