Gurugram, July 31 -- In a case of negligence, health department officials in Palwal civil hospital allegedly handed over wrong bodies to families of two Meerut-based traders after autopsy. Both had died in a road accident on the Kundli-Ghaziabad-Palwal Expressway on Monday. The mix-up came to light on Tuesday morning when it was time to take the body to the cremation ground and a friend of one of the deceased, Abhinav Agarwal, 42, opened the shroud to pour 'Ganga jal' in his mouth, said police. The deceased's friend Saurav Agarwal raised suspicion and asked close relatives to reverify the body identity, said police. The shocked family noticed that the authorities had blundered, and alerted the other grieving family to also re-check. Police officers said when the family of the second deceased, Amit Agarwal, 45, unsealed the shroud, they too found it did not belong to them. Following this, both families shared photos of the bodies to find out that they had actually got swapped before being handed over at the government mortuary in Palwal on Monday. Tarun Gupta, brother-in-law of Abhinav, said both the families soon took the bodies in ambulances and exchanged them. He alleged that there were no marks or tags on the packed bodies while being handed over to them by the authorities. "The staff at the mortuary had insisted not to open the bodies, as they were in bad shape due to the accident. Had Saurav not opened it, we would have cremated the wrong body," he added. Gupta said that the other family had not even opened their body until alerted. "None from both families would have known that we didn't even get the bodies of our loved ones," he added. Amarnath Agarwal, father of Amit Agarwal (the other deceased), said nobody at their home realised what had taken place. "Abhinav's family alerted us after which we checked while we were taking it for cremation. The body was not of my son. I was not in a situation to deal with anything. Other relatives handled the situation," he said. An inquiry was ordered on Wednesday, said a senior health department official at the Palwal civil hospital, privy to the matter. "We have taken suo-motu cognizance even though none of the two families filed any complaint," he said, adding action will be taken against the erring employees....