Chennai: The Kanchipuram district administration has decided to close down St. Joseph’s Hospice – a home for old destitutes – and shift the inmates to other homes, said an official.

The hospice whose licence was not renewed for sometime by the district administration is under investigation, the official said.

The hospice located in a village in Chengalpattu in Kanchipuram district is under a cloud following various allegations ranging from ill treatment of inmates to trade in organs harvested from the dead.

The hospice also operates a cemetery without a licence.

The St. Joesph’s Hospice website states that it has branches in Tambaram near here, Vellore and in Dindigul in Tamil Nadu.

Officials said investigators are looking into the villagers’ charges of ill treatment of the inmates and others.

The management of St.

Joseph’s Hospice has denied all the charges.

The issue came out in the open when a van belonging to St. Joseph’s Hospice branch in Tambaram was stopped by a motorist on hearing the shouts of an old woman confined inside, Business Standard reported.

The motorist had alerted the police and the public also surrounded the van.

It was found the van was carrying vegetables, the old woman, an old man and also the body of a man.

The van was said to be going to the hospice in Chengalpattu.

Subsequently the police and other state government authorities started their investigations. Later it was found that the Chengalpattu home was running without a licence.