Haridwar, Dec. 7 -- A family living in Haridwar's Jwalapur on Saturday alleged that the body of one of their relatives was gnawed at by rats in the district hospital mortuary, where it was stored since his death the previous evening. The deceased, identified as 36-year-old Lakshman Sharma, reportedly suffered a heart attack and was brought into the hospital, where doctors declared him dead, hospital officials said. Pankaj Sharma, Lucky's brother-in-law, claimed that the post-mortem examination was reportedly deferred to Saturday morning. When the family arrived at 9am to receive the body, they noticed injury marks on Lakhan's face, eyes and other body parts, he added. They were also told that the post-mortem examination was yet to be conducted. "The deep freezer where the body was kept had a hole towards the back, which was where the rats seem to have entered. This is gross negligence by the hospital authorities. My brother-in-law's sudden death already put us in shock. Now, this is like rubbing salt on our wounds," said Sharma. Meanwhile, local traders joined in solidarity with the family and held a sit-in protest at the hospital premises on Saturday. The district unit of the Congress also joined the agitation on the premises. Hospital authorities said they were cognisant of the matter and were beginning an internal probe into the matter. "Deep freezers often get defunct and we recently wrote to the authorities concerned to provide new ones. We will apprise the media of further developments in our internal probe in the coming days as well," said RV Singh, medical superintendent, Haridwar district hospital in Uttarakhand....