LONDON, July 23: Heartbroken British families say they were handed the wrong bodies of loved ones killed in last month’s tragic Air India crash in Gujarat—sparking a growing international scandal that’s rocked both London and New Delhi.

The Indian government is facing mounting pressure after reports emerged in The Daily Mail, The Times, and The Telegraph, revealing multiple cases of misidentified remains repatriated to the UK. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has not denied the allegations, though it maintains all procedures were carried out with “utmost professionalism.”

Aboard the doomed Air India flight to London Gatwick, which crashed on June 12, were 242 passengers—52 of the 241 killed were British nationals. Twelve of their bodies have since been flown back to the UK, but shockingly, several were wrongly identified, leading to families discovering they had buried strangers.

One family even cancelled a funeral at the last moment after learning the coffin contained the body of an unidentified passenger, according to the Daily Mail. In a more disturbing case, the remains of multiple victims were reportedly mixed together in a single coffin, forcing authorities to separate the commingled remains before the burial could proceed.

The horrific error was uncovered by Dr Fiona Wilcox, the coroner for Inner West London, who had to verify the victims’ identities using DNA samples from surviving relatives.

So far, two confirmed cases of mistaken identity have come to light, but there are fears many more families may be grieving the wrong loved one.

“There’s deep emotional trauma here,” said James Healy-Pratt, the lawyer representing multiple families. “One family has been in limbo for two weeks, asking, ‘If that’s not our relative… then who is it?’”

Healy-Pratt has launched a formal inquiry and is demanding answers from Air India and Kenyon International Emergency Services, the airline’s crisis response contractor. Families are also turning to their MPs and the UK Foreign Office for support.

Some families say they were not even permitted to see the remains before burial. “They just gave us a tag with a number and told us, ‘This is your mother or father,’” said Altaf Taju, a British citizen who lost his parents and brother-in-law in the crash. Although Taju’s family members were buried in India, and he was not affected by the mix-up, he expressed serious concern about the identification process.

The crash site presented immense challenges: the jet exploded into a residential building, subjecting victims' bodies to temperatures exceeding 1,500°C, making forensic identification especially difficult.

In its official response, the MEA’s spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India had been working closely with UK authorities since the issue was first flagged. “Identification was carried out as per established protocols,” he said. “All mortal remains were handled with utmost professionalism and with due regard for the dignity of the deceased.”

Still, the outrage is far from over. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to raise the matter directly with Indian PM Narendra Modi during his state visit to the UK this week.

With the story rapidly gaining traction, both governments now face intense scrutiny over how such a catastrophic error was allowed to occur—and what’s being done to ensure it never happens again.