IPS officer Rajendra Mishra’s bungalow in Bhopal. (Express Photo)FOR THE last two months, a senior IPS officer in Madhya Pradesh has claimed that his aged father is undergoing treatment inside a room in his official bungalow in Bhopal. He has claimed that his father is responding to treatment but has not let anyone in to meet him — except for his mother, siblings and a traditional healer who is said to be sourcing herbs from Pachmarhi for the treatment.
But that is really not what’s bizarre about this story: MP-cadre officer Rajendra Mishra’s father, 84, was declared dead by doctors at a private hospital on January 14. On the same day, hospital authorities say, they handed over the death certificate, too.
But 55-year-old Mishra, who is ADGP (cooperative fraud), will have none of it. He has already resisted an attempt by the state human rights commission to send a team of doctors to his residence. And given the 1987-batch officer’s seniority, police and the government are playing it safe.
“Allopathy is not the last word in medicine. There are many things beyond science. My father is alive. He is a patient under treatment. He practised yoga for more than six decades. He is in yog-nidra. What if something goes wrong when doctors try to wake him? Will the act not be called a murder?’’ says Mishra.
“If my father was dead, would the body have not decomposed by now? You don’t treat a dead body. You can’t live with a dead lizard or a rat for one hour… I don’t understand why outsiders are trying to interfere in a private affair. Treating my father is a fundamental right. I have not indulged in any crime or corruption,’’ he told The Indian Express over phone.
On February 23, a team of six doctors — three each from allopathy and ayurveda — arrived at Mishra’s bungalow to check on his father, Kulamani Mishra, who was a retired government official from Odisha. But police posted at the bungalow refused to let the team in.
Last month, Rajendra Mishra’s mother Shashimani filed a writ petition in the Madhya Pradesh High Court against any interference in this matter. She also wrote to the human rights commission, claiming that her right to life, dignity and freedom was being violated by the panel. The court issued notice to the state government and the commission but has not passed any order so far.
Meanwhile, in its response to an order from the commission to take action, the state police’s prosecution wing has said that it\ would wait for the court’s order. In its action-taken report, it informed the commission that the team of doctors was not allowed entry at Mishra’s bungalow.
But the report also states that the section under which the commission acted was not clear. It adds that the commission’s order does not specify which documents were to be seized from Mishra’s home.
Lokesh Jha, a spokesman of Bansal Hospital where Kulamani was admitted on January 13, says the patient died the next day. “The body was released and death certificate issued to the family,” he says.
Radheshyam Shukla, the “naadi vaidya” engaged by the ADG to treat his father, could not be reached for comment. J P Rao, Registrar (Law), MP Human Rights Commission, says the panel has acted “within its jurisdiction and passed orders in accordance with the law”.
On Monday, the commission made its next move in this surreal face-off: It directed the state DGP to send a senior officer to Mishra’s house, get him to comply with its previous order, and submit a reply by March 26
