By Express News Service

KASARGOD: Teachers of a school in Kerala's Kasargod district were startled when a Class X student produced her death certificate for identity verification, which stated that she had died 14 years ago.

Her teachers had asked Sweta Poojary (14) to produce her birth certificate to verify if name and date of birth in her Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) were correct.

However, instead of the birth certificate, she submitted her death certificate. The certificate issued by Bellur panchayat says she died 14 years ago.

Teachers said they were thrown off balance and it took them a while to realize what had happened. Even the student was surprised.

Sweta Poojary, a resident of Kinningar in Bellur panchayat was born on September 13, 2002. Her father, Ramanna Poojary registered her birth with the panchayat in October 2002. The local body issued the certificate in February 2003.

Ramanna said he did not bother to read the certificate, and kept it safely in his cupboard. On Saturday, when Sweta asked for her birth certificate, he gave it to her.

Later, teachers found out that the panchayat officials had wrongly typed the title head of the document as Death Certificate instead of Birth Certificate.