Clerical error at crematorium leads to mix-up of ashes

Indore: An alleged clerical blunder at Panchkuitya Muktidham resulted in two grieving families nearly immersing wrong ashes on Saturday morning.The incident, which caused hours of distress and a heated standoff, was triggered by the issuance of two separate tokens bearing the same identification number (13) for collection of ashes.The ordeal began when family of Madanlal Vishwakarma (55), a resident of Gauri Shankar Nagar, arrived at the crematorium for ‘Asthi Sanchay' (collection of ashes). Vishwakarma had died on Friday, and, acting on priestly advice to avoid a Sunday collection, the family reached the crematorium early Saturday.To their horror, the spot where the final rites had been performed, was empty. "We were devastated. The ashes of our loved one were simply gone," said Mukesh Sharma, a close family associate. The family alleged that the municipal staff on duty appeared incapacitated and could not provide answers, leading to an immediate protest on the premises.A frantic search of the crematorium register revealed a glaring error: Two families were assigned token number 13. While the Vishwakarma family searched, the family of Sunil Choube (65), a resident of Nagin Nagar who had died on March 5, had already collected the ashes from the spot designated by the staff.By the time the error was realised, the Choube family had travelled nearly 80 kilometres to Kheri Ghat for the immersion.At around 11 am, as the Choube family prepared to consign the ashes to the holy Narmada, they received a desperate call from the crematorium. "They told us we were carrying someone else's ashes. We had followed the staff's instructions perfectly and were already at the river bank," said Ajay Choube, the deceased's son.Displaying humanitarian spirit despite their own grief, the Choube family aborted their ritual, and drove back to Indore to return the ashes to the Vishwakarma family.The Panchkuitya Moksha Vikas Samiti expressed deep regret over the incident. Vaibhav Baheti, president of the Samiti, attributed the mix-up to a ‘human error' by a veteran staff member. "The employee involved has served for 35 years and was a frontline warrior during the Covid-19 pandemic. In a momentary lapse, he issued token 13 instead of 12. We issued a stern warning to ensure such an insensitive mistake is never repeated," Baheti said.Another twist in the incident surfaced when, during a search of the crematorium office's records, a third token with number 13 was found. The staff claimed that it was an old token and was not given to any family.The Vishwakarma family initially summoned the police via Dial 100 service. Additional DCP Rajesh Dandotia told TOI that the situation was eventually resolved between the families. "The police will initiate legal action if a formal complaint is lodged by the affected parties," he said.The ashes were eventually exchanged three hours later, allowing both families to proceed with the final rites of their loved ones with heavy hearts but restored peace of mind.