Pune: Bodies Swapped At YCMH, Family Cremates Wrong Body
Pune, 20th October 2022: Two dead bodies were exchanged in a case of mistaken identity at the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC)-run YCMH on Wednesday morning, resulting in outpourings of emotion from the relatives of both the deceased women. The family who discovered the error while transporting the body attempted to attack the dean and ransacked his office, while the other had cremated the body believing it to be their own. The high-octane incident lasted nearly an hour before police arrived to calm things down.
Dr Rajendra Wable said that the body of Snehlata Ashok Gaikwad (57), a resident of Dapodi, was brought to YCMH at six am on Wednesday. She died on Tuesday at 7.40 pm in a private hospital. The body was kept at the mortuary following the post-mortem. Meena Balu Gade’s (57) body was there as well. Her body was discovered at 2.40 am on Wednesday after she died of a lung abscess caused by cancer. “The exchange happened around 11.30 am. As per procedure, a body is handed over to the relatives by our class four staffers in the presence of police, and that too only after the relatives’ consent. However, the policemen were not present at the time of handing Meena’s body over to the Gade family. They took Snehlata’s body and performed her last rites in the Thergaon gaothan crematorium. Actually, they failed to recognise her body,” he said.
Snehlata was seriously injured on Tuesday evening when a wall collapsed on her. She was taken to Jupiter Hospital in Aundh, but she died there. Her relatives in Gujarat rushed to YCMH on Wednesday morning, where they discovered her body. When they took the body for the last rites, they discovered it wasn’t Snehlata. They caused a commotion in the hospital and vandalised the office of dean Dr Rajendra Wable. The Dapodi family is in distress. Snehlata’s two sons have returned to Thergaon to collect their mother’s ashes.
PCMC Commissioner Shekhar Singh said, “This is very unfortunate. A detailed inquiry will be done. A committee has been appointed under additional commissioner Jitendra Wagh for it. It has been given seven days to find out the cause. Those who are guilty will be punished as per law. We have also instructed the YCMH officials to improve their administrative working so that such incidents do not happen in the future.”
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