Raghavan was shocked when he went to the mortuary of the Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) here on Monday to collect the body of his wife. The body was missing.
The body of G.G. Bai (32), who died by setting herself ablaze following a domestic quarrel in Arasaradi on Sunday, got swapped with that of John Amritraj of Pasumalai who died in an accident the same day.
It is said that Raghavan had gone to the GRH at around 11 a.m. The hospital staff had asked him to collect the body of his wife from the morgue. After a long search, he found the body missing and alerted the hospital staff who told him that it got swapped by mistake. Infuriated over the lackadaisical attitude of the staff, he threatened to lodge a complaint against them.
Immediately, the staff reported the matter to the police who rushed to Pasumalai where the kith and kin of John Amritraj were paying their last respects to the body of G.G. Bai at home.
The family suffered another jolt when the police informed them that they had brought home the body of another person. Following a request by the police, the family members handed over the body to them and went back to the GRH to get the body of John Amritraj.
Tense moments prevailed at the hospital at around 1 p.m. when the family members of both the deceased gathered at the morgue and demanded action against the staff.
“Since the face was covered, we couldn’t recognise the body. The police just barged in and told us that we had the wrong body,” said Sundar, a relative of John Amritraj.
“It was embarrassing for us,” he added.
It has been alleged that one of the staff at the mortuary had wrongly marked the corpses under the influence of alcohol.
Blaming the hospital staff for the incident, Raghavan said they would have allowed him to take away the body of another person had he been a bit careless.
The family members dispersed after the hospital authorities assured them that they would take action against those responsible for the serious negligence.
Attempts to reach Dean of Government Rajaji Hospital N. Mohan went in vain.
