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Delhi hospital staffer steals gold jewellery from dead woman, caught on CCTV
A purported video of the incident being circulated on social media showed the staffer taking off something from the deceased woman's ears.
A hospital cleaning staffer at a private medical facility in Delhi allegedly stole gold jewellery off a woman who had passed away moments before.
The woman died at a private nursing home in Krishna Nagar in east Delhi, news agency PTI quoted police as saying. A purported video of the incident being circulated on social media showed the staffer taking off something from the deceased woman's ears.
A complaint was registered after the incident by the deceased woman's son, Naveen Kumar Gupta, a resident of Shahdara. Gupta told police he had rushed his ailing mother to the emergency ward of the Goyal Hospital on November 11.
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The doctors had then advised the son to shift his mother to another hospital for treatment, PTI reported.
As Gupta stepped out of the hospital to call an ambulance, the woman stole the jewellery off his mother's body, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara) Prashant Gautam said in a statement.
“My mother was put on oxygen as soon as we admitted her. When the doctors asked us to shift her, I stepped out to call an ambulance,” Gupta told PTI.
However, after he came back inside, Gupta found that the earrings and ear-chain that his mother was wearing had gone missing. “By the time I returned, she had passed away. When we came back with other family members, we found her earrings missing,” Gupta said.
Gupta further alleged that the hospital staff had, initially, denied any knowledge about the missing jewellery, and had also asked the deceased's family members to check properly before taking the body.
The family returned to the hospital after performing the last rites of the woman and later approached the police, Gupta told PTI. Gupta said that the FIR was not registered immediately, while adding that they had received the tops worn by the woman but not the ear-chain.
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Officials also confirmed that the hospital handed over the earrings to the family, but the chain could not be recovered. “The sweeper stole it, and the CCTV footage shows her taking it,” Gupta said.
A case has been registered under Section 303(2) (theft) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) at the Krishna Nagar police station and an investigation is underway, PTI quoted the officials as saying.
“I don’t want anyone to face this when they are already grieving the loss of a loved one,” Gupta said.
