There was confusion over the identity of a body in the district designated COVID-19 hospital in Belagavi on Monday.
A 55-year-old woman from Belagavi died of COVID-19-related complications on Saturday. Her relatives were present during the cremation that evening.
However, they were shocked to get a phone call from the district hospital on Monday stating that they had not collected the body.
They were also confused over who they had cremated on Saturday. A few of the family members rushed to the APMC Police Station to lodge a complaint against the hospital authorities.
Local officers informed Police Commissioner K. Tiyagarajan who called the Belagavi Institute of Medical Sciences director Vinay Dastikop for a clarification. Dr. Datikop confirmed that the body was delivered to the city-based family on Saturday.
He said that a clerical error in noting down the phone number of relatives was the reason for the wrongly placed call on Monday.
The hospital staff have called this family by mistake. They should have called another family whose phone number has similar digits, the director told the Police Commissioner.
Dr. Tiyagarajan said that the truth was conveyed to the family who then did not lodge a case.
