A lost cellphone at the Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus (CMBT) in Koyambedu triggered a comedy of errors after police mistook the body beside it as that of an ex-serviceman from Tiruvannamalai.
After police conveyed the news of his ‘death’ to his three wives, two of them turned up at the police station in tears.
The ‘tragedy’ ended after the man in question himself walked into the police station to collect his missing cellphone.
It all began when an unidentified man collapsed at the bus terminus on Wednesday evening. Police said he was rushed to the Kilpauk Medical College Hospital, where he died.
Even as the police began investigations to identify the deceased, sources said that an auto driver handed over a mobile phone to the police claiming that it was found at the place where the man collapsed.
Hoping that it would give them clues for identification, police said they made calls to the last three dialled numbers in the phone.
The three women on the other end reportedly informed the police that they were wives of an ex-serviceman, Gemini, from Tiruvannamalai district.
When police sources said they informed the women that Gemini had died, two of them rushed to the Koyambedu CMBT police station on Wednesday night. Just as they were about to leave for the hospital where the man’s body was kept in the morgue, to everyone’s surprise, Gemini himself walked in to the police station claiming that he lost his phone.
Police sources claimed that Gemini was shocked to see his wives at the police station.
Even as he left with his wives, police continued their investigation and later identified the deceased as a beggar.