Sons trace dad's body to Kolkata's Nimtala creamtorium after coffin swap, bury it later

KOLKATA: The body of a central Kolkata nonagenarian man, which went missing on Monday morning from Peace World in Topsia, was traced to the Nimtala crematorium minutes before it was put in the electric pyre.
The bereaved sons, who had approached the police and KMC, could finally bring it and bury it in a Christian burial ground. The family has not lodged any complaint, saying they were "mourning and wanted privacy", but the KMC has suspended two employees at Peace World, pending inquiry over the mix-up.
The central Kolkata resident passed away on Friday. As his three sons were yet to arrive in Kolkata, the burial was slated for Monday. Meanwhile, the body was kept at Peace World. But when the sons visited Peace World on Monday, they found their father had been "handed over" to another family. That family, it turned out, had not checked inside the coffin and taken the body away to Nimtala Ghat, ostensibly mistaking it for their deceased family member.
The sons approached the Topsia police station and the cops alerted the KMC. The civic body sent out messages to all its crematoriums. The body was about to be put into the furnace, when the civic message arrived and the cremation was stopped. The sons later took their father's body to the Christian burial ground. The other family, too, managed to trace their family member's body.
KMC deputy mayor Atin Ghosh said an inquiry was started. "Bereaved family bringing bodies to Peace World are given a token. It is advisable to check the token while taking a body away," he said.