Gold jewellery stolen from dead woman at Delhi hospital; staffer caught on CCTV

A woman's gold jewellery was allegedly stolen by a hospital cleaning staffer moments after she died at a private nursing home in east Delhi's Krishna Nagar, police said on Tuesday.

Complainant Naveen Kumar Gupta, a resident of Shahdara, said he had rushed his ailing mother to the emergency ward of Goyal Hospital on November 11, they said.

A video of the incident, circulated on social media, purportedly showed the hospital staffer stealing the dead woman's jewellery.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara) Prashant Gautam, in a statement, said that the doctors advised the son to shift his mother to another hospital, and as he stepped out to call an ambulance, someone stole her jewellery.

Gupta later found that the earrings and ear-chain his mother was wearing had gone missing. When he informed the hospital administration, they found the missing jewellery with a cleaning staffer, who allegedly stole it.

Speaking to PTI, Gupta said, “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. By the time I returned, she had passed away. When we came back with other family members, we found her earrings missing.”

Gupta alleged that the hospital staff initially denied knowledge of the missing jewellery and asked the family to check properly before taking the body.

“After performing the last rites, we returned to the hospital and later approached the police. The FIR was not registered immediately. We have received only the tops, but not the chain. The sweeper stole it, and the CCTV footage shows her taking it,” he said.

“I don't want anyone to face this when they are already grieving the loss of a loved one,” Gupta added.

The hospital handed over the recovered earrings to the family, but the chain could not be retrieved, officials said.

A case under Section 303(2) (theft) of the BNS has been registered at Krishna Nagar police station and an investigation is under way, they said.