Relative's gaffe leads to wrong body being taken to graveyard

Hyderabad: A wrong body was carried to a graveyard here in place of a person who succumbed to the coronavirus after a family member allegedly made a mistake in its identification, but the wife of the deceased found that it was not her husband’s corpse following which it was taken back to the hospital mortuary, police said.

“The 57-year-old man, a resident of Begumpet in the city, succumbed to the virus at a state-run hospital on June 8 night, and subsequently, the body was taken for a funeral at a graveyard on Tuesday where his wife realized that it was not her husband’s body,” they said.

According to sources at the hospital, a brother-in-law of the deceased came for identification of the corpse and he identified the wrong body by looking at it from a distance at the COVID-19 mortuary in the hospital.

“It could be due to fear of entering the mortuary having COVID-19 patients,” the sources said.

According to police, the man, who had gone to the hospital, failed to identify it correctly as he saw it from a distance due to COVID-19 apprehensions.

“Municipal personnel shifted the body to the graveyard according to the identification made by the brother-in-law,” police said.

“As per the Standard Operating Procedure, the body is shown to the blood relations of the deceased, after its identification, before the funeral,” they said.

“The wife identified that it was not her husband’s body after which it was taken back to the mortuary,” police said, adding that no complaint was lodged in the incident.

When contacted, sources in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) said the civic body was only involved in helping with the funeral of the deceased COVID-19 patients.

“The mistake, which occurred after the relative of the deceased failed to identify the correct corpse, was rectified immediately and the funeral was conducted on Wednesday morning,” they said.

The family members of the deceased could not be reached immediately for comments.