70-year-old gets death certificate, in advance

Those who have gone through the grind would tell you how difficult and time-consuming it is to get a death certificate issued from a local body in the event of a death in the family. But, it seems, it is not that difficult in Noida.

Those who have gone through the grind would tell you how difficult and time-consuming it is to get a death certificate issued from a local body in the event of a death in the family. But, it seems, it is not that difficult in Noida.

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Recently, a 70-year-old city resident received his death certificate. However, the man’s son has not taken the authorities ‘gesture’ kindly and lodged a police complaint.

Ishwar Chand Sharma, a resident of Chaura Raghunathpur in Sector 22, who received the mrityu praman patra, said he was shocked.

“Till now, I haven’t come out of the rude shock. It’s definitely not a nice experience. Was it a mistake by the officials or a prank or a deliberate mischief? I can't figure out,” said Sharma.

According to the certificate, Sharma had ‘died’ on August 18, 2010.

And, adding insult to his injury, officials had sent the letter in the name of Sharma’s father late Tek Ram Sharma.

According to Sharma, the certificate has the stamp of the registrar of Births and Deaths.

“I have lodged a police complaint at Sector 24 police station. We suspect it could be a deliberate act as the cases pertaining to land acquisition in our village have reached the final stages at Allahabad High Court and the decision is awaited in the next few days. If someone submits a death certificate in court, it would take years to prove that the man is alive,” said Dev Dutt, Sharma's son.

“It may be a ploy to grab Sharma’s compensation,” said Lokendra Pratap Singh, an investigation officer.