Mirzapur: A shocking incident has come to light in the Mirzapur district of Uttar Pradesh, where the bodies of two different accident victims -- one who died in a train accident and another who hit a tree riding a bike -- were swapped in the mortuary.
The two wearing similar jackets and being of the same age led to confusion which ended in the wrong body being cremated.
Biker's body exchanged with one found on train track
The body of Amish Gupta, a resident of Singrauli district in Madhya Pradesh, was found on the railway track near Dhauha village in Chunar tehsil of Mirzapur on Friday (Jan 3, 2024).
His family was informed and asked to collect the body from the Mirzapur mortuary. However, when they arrived at the mortuary on Saturday, they found that the body was not their son's.
It was later discovered that the body of Amish Gupta had been mistakenly handed over to the family of Gulesh Kumar Bind, a bike rider who died in a road accident near RC Nagar of Padri police station area on Thursday night. His family had already cremated the body, believing it to be their son's.
The family of Amish Gupta alleged that the body was exchanged due to the negligence of the mortuary employees.
Deceased's brother blames mortuary officials
Amish's brother Sanksar said that he (Amish) had left Ludhiana for Renukoot (UP) during the intervening night of January 1 and 2. "He was supposed to reach Renukoot on January 3 but we came to know from social media that his body had been found on the railway track. Today morning (Jan 4), we reached the police station in Chunar where after completing the paperwork, we were told to take the body from Mirzapur mortuary at 2 pm," he said.
"But here, we are not able to find the body. We are being told that someone else has taken the body."
Sanskar said the doctors and the authorities at the hospital and mortuary were responsible for the gaffe. "It happened because of their negligence," he said, adding the body exchanged (now believed to be Amish's) had already been cremated by the other family.
Additional Chief Medical Officer, Dr Mukesh Kumar confirmed that the bodies had been swapped and said an investigation will be conducted into the matter.
"The bodies were from a road accident. Both were of the same age. The family of the dead body from Padri (believed to be of Gulesh Kumar Bind) had mistakenly taken the wrong body with them. They have been informed again," he said.
'Same jacket, same age'
Sources told ETV Bharat that the faces of both bodies were stained with blood, both were almost the same age, and the jackets on both bodies were also of the same colour.
"The family members who reached first identified the wrong body in a hurry and took it away. When the matter was revealed after the family members arrived from Madhya Pradesh, there was chaos as they found their kin's body was not in the mortuary," they said.
CO City Vivek Jawala and City Kotwali in-charge Neeraj Pathak arrived at the spot and assured the family members of investigating the matter.
