The Telangana Health Department has ordered an inquiry into the incident reported at the Mahabubabad Government General Hospital (GGH), where multiple reports claimed that a man was locked in the hospital’s mortuary and left the next morning. Hospital authorities dismissed the reports, saying survival in a mortuary freezer was medically impossible if a person had actually been placed in the freezer.
According to hospital superintendent B. Srinivas Rao, the incident took place on Wednesday, October 30, when a 45-year-old man, identified as Vendi Raju, collapsed near the mortuary premises during heavy rain. The hospital and the morgue are on opposite sides of the road, he specified.
“Raju, a former truck driver and now destitute from Jayaram village of Gudur mandal, fell in front of the mortuary gate. Some passers-by noticed him and helped shift him to a nearby bench in an open area next to the mortuary. There he was given first aid and taken to hospital for further treatment,” said Dr. Srinivas Rao.
He denied rumors circulating online and said the man was never placed in the mortuary. “If someone is kept in a morgue, survival overnight in such extremely low temperatures will not be possible,” he said.
Following widely circulated reports, Telangana Director of Medical Education (DME) Dr. A. Narendra Kumar to investigate the matter. A three-member committee was established to investigate the incident, the members of which are Dr. V. Chandra Sekhar, Superintendent, Government General Hospital, Mulugu; Dr. Gopal Rao, Professor and Head of General Surgery, Government General Hospital, Jangaon; and Dr. Sridhara Chary, Professor and Head of Forensic Sciences, Government Medical College, Siddipet.
Published – 01 Nov 2025 20:30 IST
