AHMEDABAD: Amit Chand, who flew in from Canada on Sunday to claim the body of his mother, Lekha Chand, 65, learnt to his horror that the VS Hospital morgue had handed it over to another family.
Lekha Chand’s body was given to the Bagadias four days earlier.
This is the third body swap at VS Hospital over the past seven years. In the earlier two instances, VS Hospital authorities were saved as the bodies were intact and interventions at the right time prevented the amplification of grief of the bereaved kin.
Lekha Chand, 65, a resident of Vejalpur, suffered a massive heart attack on November 11 and was taken to a private hospital on SG Road, where she died.
The hospital does not have a morgue. So her kin placed the body at the VS Hospital morgue. On the same day, the Bagadias arrived at the morgue to accept the body of Divya Bagadia, also 65. The morgue attendant handed over Lekha Chand’s body.
“We are yet to ascertain whether the Bagadias saw the body physically,” admitted a senior VS Hospital doctor. Amit Chand was handed over Divya Bagadia’s body.
A similar swap had occurred in August 2013 with the bodies of Najmabanu Pathan (30) and Teena Thakor (of the same age). Both had succumbed to burn injuries. Police eventually helped the families get the right bodies.
Last year in May, police had booked a case against the “doctors and medical staff” of VS Hospital for fraud and criminal conspiracy.
The mortuary staff had swapped the body of a murder victim with that of a pregnant woman.
The family of 19-year-old Mittal Jadav, the murder victim, was handed over the body of 26-year-old Nasreen Sayyed, who had died during childbirth at the hospital.
“As some days have passed, we believe that the body of Lekha Chand could have been cremated,” said inspector G K Bharwad, who is in charge of the Ellisbridge police station.
VS Hospital has CCTV cameras across the premises, except at the morgue. “If the probe reveals negligence, we could register an offence” said Bharwad.