Consumers in Tripura, India were shocked to learn that their local hospital morgue was being used to store food. The morgue storage facility was being used to store a type of fish called hilsa. Storage costs and refrigeration costs can be expensive in India. The hot climate makes it essential for proper storage of fresh fish or the meat can go rancid.

Local fish merchants had invented a creative scheme of cutting storage costs by bribing hospital staff to allow them to store fish alongside dead bodies in the morgue. Corrupt hospital employees received small payments for helping fish merchants store their fish inside the morgue. Fish was stored along with human bodies in cooling boxes for a charge of about $0.20 per kilogram per night. This rate was much cheaper than private refrigeration storage in India.

This corruption was uncovered by a local reporter who posed as a fish merchant and was given a tour of the facility by corrupt hospital workers. These unsuspecting hospital staff outlined the entire operation to this undercover reporter. The reporter wrote a story which brought to light this deceitful practice carried on my unscrupulous fish merchants. The Indian government took steps to bring to justice those involved in the crime.

The Indian health minister called for an investigation and suspended one employee. An investigation hopefully will reveal all participants involved. Once complete, the investigation may lead to the arrest and prosecution of corrupt hospital staff as well as those fish merchants using this illegal service to store their fish.