Probe ordered after AIIMS-Patna issues two death certificates for same man, with spouse name changed
Bihar’s chief registrar of birth and death will probe how Patna’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) issued two death certificates of a patient, with different names of spouse on each, said government officials familiar with the matter on Monday.
A team will visit the AIIMS on February 17 to probe the matter .
The Bihar government had, on February 11, ordered an inquiry into the case, a day after a report appeared in Patna’s Hindustan Times (titled “AIIMS-Patna| Two death certificates for one man: Families fight over Covid ex gratia after wife’s name revised), said officials.
“We have taken cognizance of the matter. I have directed the chief registrar (birth and death), Bihar, to conduct an inquiry and take appropriate action,” said Arunish Chawla, additional chief secretary, planning and development, government of Bihar.
Ravi Shankar, Bihar’s chief registrar (birth and death), said he had communicated the date of his visit to the AIIMS administration on Monday.
The AIIMS had issued two death certificates of Rajeev Kumar Nirala, 39, a computer programmer at the Bihar School Examination Board, who died of coronavirus at the institute on October 22, 2020. The name of spouse was different in each certificate.
Prachi Priya, who stays with her parents now in Patna, was mentioned as Nirala’s wife in the initial death certificate, issued on November 5, 2020 to Janardan Prasad, 62, the father of the deceased. Six days later, the AIIMS revised the certificate, mentioning the spouse’s name as Puja Kumari, who Nirala had allegedly married in 2016.
On the basis of the death certificate, Kumari, in March-April 2021, claimed the state government’s compensation of ₹4 lakh to the next of kin of the Covid-19 deceased.
The father of the deceased has alleged connivance of AIIMS staff in revising the death certificate for pecuniary gains. He has challenged the revised death certificate, but the AIIMS, despite its decision to revise the death certificate, removing the name of spouse, is yet to act.
When repeated complaints to AIIMS went unheard, Prasad moved an RTI on December 1, 2022, seeking to know on what basis it changed the name of Nirala’s spouse in the death certificate it revised on November 11, 2020. The premier institute, however, had not responded, said Prasad.
The state’s planning and development department is tasked with issuing birth and death certificates on behalf of the Registrar General of India. The government of Bihar had in February 1988 designated the deputy superintendent of hospitals as the registrar of birth and death of the health facility concerned. In case of AIIMS-Patna, its superintendent is also the registrar of birth and death at the institute.
