A 61-year-old man from Maharashtra, who had been admitted to Maharishi Deoraha Baba Medical College in Deoria with a leg injury, was found dead inside the hospital’s water tank in a shocking incident that has raised serious concerns about hospital negligence and security lapses. The deceased was identified as Ashok Gawande, a resident of Thane, Maharashtra.
According to officials, Gawande was brought to the emergency ward on September 27 in an 108 ambulance after sustaining a leg injury. He was admitted under his own name, and hospital records confirmed his identity. However, days later, Gawande went missing from the ward, and the hospital administration failed to notify the police or his family, an omission that has drawn sharp criticism from authorities and the public alike.
During the subsequent investigation, police found a shirt and a bedsheet on the hospital’s fifth floor, both of which were identified as Gawande’s belongings. These discoveries allowed investigators to trace his ward and verify his hospital records. On October 6, when hospital staff noticed a foul smell in the water being supplied to the OPD and ward buildings, a maintenance team climbed to the fifth floor to inspect the cemented water tank. To their horror, they found a body floating inside. The police were immediately alerted, and the body was recovered and sent for post-mortem examination.
Police teams were dispatched to Mumbai and Gorakhpur to help confirm the man’s identity. Gawande’s wife, Anita, identified the deceased through photographs, while his brother-in-law, Prafull Nagar of Gorakhpur, also confirmed the identification via WhatsApp. Later that night, police released an official statement revealing that Gawande had been living separately from his wife for the past four years and had undergone treatment for mental illness at a hospital in Mumbai for several months. Officers noted that his “mental condition was not stable” at the time of his admission.
Following the grim discovery, District Magistrate Divya Mittal conducted a detailed inspection of the hospital and found several serious lapses in security and infrastructure. The entry door to the fifth floor was left unlocked, the latch was damaged, and there were no CCTV cameras installed on the staircase or ramp leading to the upper floors. The lack of basic surveillance and access control prompted immediate administrative action.
A probe committee led by the Chief Development Officer (CDO) was formed to investigate the case and the safety failures in detail. The team’s findings were forwarded to the state government the same evening. Acting swiftly on the report, authorities removed the hospital’s principal, Dr. Rajesh Barnwal, from his post and reassigned him to Lucknow. Dr. Rajni from Etah was appointed as the acting principal and officially took charge on Thursday.
Police are now exploring all possible angles in the investigation to determine how Gawande, who was reportedly mentally unstable, disappeared from the hospital ward and ended up dead inside the water tank. The shocking case has sparked outrage across the region, with many calling for stronger hospital security measures and accountability for the glaring negligence that led to this tragedy.
