In a shocking event, New Delhi's AIIMS trauma centre mixed up bodies of two women who had died due to COVID-19 on Tuesday (7 July) and handed them over to wrong families, News18 reported.

According to the report, the COVID-19 specialised hospital called and informed a Muslim woman's family that she had passed away due to the viral disease and asked them to collect the mortal remains.

Upon reaching the hospital, the Muslim woman's family members were told to prepare for burial while the body was getting dispatched.

The family then headed to the burial place at Delhi Gate while one of them stayed at the hospital and received the body in a plastic cover a few hours later.

At the burial ground, as per the report, the woman's children insisted on seeing their mother's face. The woman's brother said that they were asked to pay Rs 500 by an official if they wanted to see her face.

"As we paid them to see my sister's face, we were shocked. It wasn't her. It was another woman's body and belong to a Hindu family," he said.

Upon taking up the matter with the officials, they were told that there had been a mix up and they would get their relative's body in an hour. However, they did not get the body even after waiting at the burial ground for hours and were forced to again go to AIIMS trauma centre.

At the hospital, the family learns that the body of their relative had already been cremated by the Hindu family. And the Hindu family later found out, when contacted by the hospital authorities, that it was not their daughter but someone else whom they cremated.

As per the report, the authorities at the trauma centre have initiated an inquiry into the mixup and one staff member at the mortuary had been terminated.