Woman Cremated Alive After Hospital Allegedly Made a Mistake of Declaring Her Dead

A 24-year-old woman was burned alive after the hospital declared her dead.

Rachna Sisodia was rushed at Sharda hospital in Greater Noida in northern India's Uttar Pradesh state where she was declared dead due to cardiorespiratory arrest and acute respiratory distress syndrome.

New Zealand Herald reported that his husband, Devesh Chaudhary, drove the body of his wife to a funeral pyre in Aligarh for the cremation. As they were incinerating the body, police allegedly arrived and pulled out the body which was already 70 percent burned at that time, Times of India reported.

Post-mortem examination revealed that based on the charred particles found inside her lungs and windpipe, Rachna died in "shock" due to being burned alive.

"This happens when someone is burnt alive. The particles go inside with the breath. If a person is dead, such particles cannot reach the lungs and the windpipe. So, the doctors concluded that the woman was burnt alive on the pyre," an official said.

Hindustan Times said it was Rachna's brother who called the Aligarh police. Her brother thought something was not right about her death and decided to contact the police.

Apparently, Rachna ran away from her home in Bulandshahr December last year. She then married Devesh and they stayed in Aligarh for a while. Rachna's uncle filed rape and murder cases against Devesh and his other 10 friends, who were also with him when they went to the funeral pyre.

Police have launched a search for him and his friends, but they all disappeared. Before going to hiding, Devesh allegedly spoke to local media by phone to deny the allegations, saying that he was being framed by the uncle in a bid to acquire a property.

Meanwhile, the hospital who declared Rachna dead remains firm on their stand that there is already no signs of life when her body was released to her husband.