Family Cremates Wrong Body After Mix-Up At Delhi Hospital, Probe Underway
The confusion reportedly began when the family of Bharat Bhushan mistakenly identified Pankaj Kumar’s body as that of their deceased relative. Legal action will be taken once the inquiry concludes.
A family in Delhi’s Nangloi cremated a stranger after mistakenly identifying his body as that of their relative. The mix-up occurred on Thursday when two bodies were brought to the hospital within a short span of time.
One of them was Pankaj Kumar, a resident of Prem Nagar, who had died after falling from a terrace and sustaining fatal injuries. His body was kept at the mortuary for a post-mortem examination. Around the same time, the body of Bharat Bhushan from Nangloi was also received for autopsy, news agency PTI reported citing police sources.
The confusion reportedly began when the family of Bharat Bhushan mistakenly identified Pankaj Kumar’s body as that of their deceased relative. Following the post-mortem, they allegedly completed all formalities, claimed the body, and proceeded to cremate it.
The error came to light only when Pankaj Kumar’s family arrived at the hospital later to collect his remains only to discover that only one body was left in the mortuary—and it was not their relative. They then raised an immediate objection and alleged gross negligence by the hospital staff.
Kumar's family accused the hospital of failing to ensure a proper identification process before releasing the body. They claimed that neither adequate verification steps nor cross-checks were carried out, leading to the distressing mix-up.
Police sources said that, so far, no formal written complaint has been filed, but an investigation into the incident is underway. “We are verifying the sequence of events and questioning the hospital staff to ascertain whether due procedures were followed,” PTI quoted a source as saying.
The incident prompted a probe into the matter, raising serious questions about procedural lapses at the hospital’s mortuary. Authorities have assured that appropriate legal action will be taken once the inquiry concludes.
Top Headlines
