MOHALI: A medical error declared a Mohali man dead six years back, killing his hopes of obtaining compensation for injuries sustained in a road accident, throwing his life in turmoil and ruining his marriage prospects.Amit Pandey, 32, a resident of Trivedi camp village in Mohali district, is still struggling to prove he is alive. Numerous visits to offices of the district authorities and UT officials have failed to correct the mistake that occurred following his accident on May 30, 2012. “I was going to my work place at Derabassi on my motorcycle. When I reached near the Dhillon factory, a bus hit me from the rear. I was taken to Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, Chandigarh, where doctors declared me dead in my medical report,” said Pandey.According to doctors, it was a case of mistaken identity. Sources in GMCH said a resident doctor on duty had declared Pandey dead. He had written the observation for a patient who had died on the file of Pandey and no one cross-checked, said sources. “Such reports must be counter-signed by a consultant as a resident doctor is a student and not held responsible for such errors,” said a doctor in GMCH. But the blunder had been committed, hurting Pandey in the court.“I lost the accident case due to the declaration of my death in the medical report. A court in Derabassi gave the benefit of doubt to the bus driver and acquitted him in 2014,” said Pandey, who is struggling to get married owing to his unwanted status. “People make fun of me. I am mocked by my relatives and local residents as ‘murda’. I always avoid socializing so that no one questions my existence,” he said.Pandey has made countless rounds of government offices to prove he is not a “ghost”, but is frustrated now. “I had visited Derabassi SDM office, GMCH and Zirakpur police station, but officers laughed after listening to my story. They later assured to get me justice. Now, I have given up.”Amit Pandey has alleged that he had visited Mohali deputy commissioner’s office a few months back but her PA had misbehaved with him. “He told me that there are two such cases pending in the district. Then I thought there is a queue here too, that of ghosts. I lost all hope and returned home,” he said. Mohali deputy commissioner, Gurpreet Kaur Sapra said, “If anybody feels that someone had misbehaved with him, he should come and meet me. I will check the case status.”Sources in the Chandigarh health department said the matter had come to its notice and the then home secretary, Anurag Aggarwal, had marked an inquiry in the case. However, when home secretary Arun Gupta was contacted, he replied, “I don’t know anything about it.”Derabassi sub-divisional magistrate Paramjit Singh said he has joined the Mohali administration a few months back and does not know about the case. He, however, added that Amit Pandey could meet him and if he has submitted a complaint, action will be taken. Lal Bihari Mritak, a farmer and activist from Amilo in Azamgarh district Uttar Pradesh , was officially dead between 1975 and 1994. He fought with the bureaucracy for 19 years to prove that he is alive. He founded Mritak (deceased) Sangh, the ‘Uttar Pradesh Association of Dead People’, to highlight cases like his.

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