Undertaker booked for botch-up while embalming body

Rajiv Jain, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone V, said the case was filed against the undertaker earlier this month based on a preliminary inquiry after Shukla submitted his complaint. Express photo by Nirmal Harindran

Brijesh Shukla wanted to give his mother a dignifed farewell after she lost her battle with cancer in March. But he was in for a shock when the undertaker gave him his mother’s body — her face had swollen to twice its size and blood was oozing from her body. Shukla was left with no option but to cremate her in a hurry.

“Her head turned black and swelled to twice its normal size. I was worried it would burst,” said Shukla, who lives in Mumbai Central. Shukla’s mother, Kanti, had passed away at the age of 57 at Bombay Hospital on March 29, two days after being admitted there.

The family had planned to cremate her remains in their native Kanpur on March 31, and were referred to an undertaker to embalm her body for inter-state travel. An undertaker, also known as a funeral director, is a professional involved in the business of funeral rites. These tasks entail the embalming and burial or cremation of the dead, as well as the planning and arrangement of the actual funeral ceremony. Funeral directors may at times be asked to perform tasks such as dressing (in garments usually suitable for daily wear), casketing (placing the human body in the coffin), and cossetting (applying any sort of cosmetic or substance to the best viewable areas of the corpse for the purpose of enhancing its appearance).

Shukla said the undertaker, who gave his name only as David and claimed to be a member of a prominent family running funeral services in the city, took his mother’s body in an ambulance to his office in Mahim. “At the office, I was surprised to see only a few young boys and not a single medical professional who would perform the embalming procedure. David kept assuring me that a doctor would arrive soon,” said Shukla. He said the men placed his mother’s body inside an unclean ambulance and injected a chemical before placing it into a coffin.

Deeply shaken, Shukla approached the police earlier this month with a complaint against the undertaker for denying his mother dignity in death. A case was registered at Mahim police station on May 7 against David under the IPC for offering indignity to a human corpse, cheating, impersonation and criminal breach of trust, the police said. “I wanted justice for my mother. This is not how I wanted to see her for the last time,” said Shukla, who is an advocate practising at the Bombay High Court.

Rajiv Jain, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone V, said the case was filed against the undertaker earlier this month based on a preliminary inquiry after Shukla submitted his complaint, with medical documents and a pictures of his mother’s disfigured case. Another officer at Mahim police station said no arrests had been made.