SEVERAL BODIES FOUND FLOATING IN YAMUNA RIVER IN HAMIRPUR

KANPUR: Many unidentified bodies (some locals claimed more than a dozen) were found floating in the Yamuna river in Hamirpur district between Thursday and Friday. Two bodies were partially burnt, police said.

On being informed, senior police and district administration officers rushed to the spot and later claimed that people from neighbouring districts like Kanpur Outer and Kanpur Dehat instead of cremating the bodies immersed them into the river.

Anoop Singh, the additional SP of Hamirpur, claimed that many families instead of burning the mortal remains of their dead kin preferred to immerse them in the river as the last rites.

KANPUR: Many unidentified bodies (some locals claimed more than a dozen) were found floating in the Yamuna river in Hamirpur district between Thursday and Friday. Two bodies were partially burnt, police said.

On being informed, senior police and district administration officers rushed to the spot and later claimed that people from neighbouring districts like Kanpur Outer and Kanpur Dehat instead of cremating the bodies immersed them into the river.

Anoop Singh, the additional SP of Hamirpur, claimed that many families instead of burning the mortal remains of their dead kin preferred to immerse them in the river as the last rites. He said they were looking into the matter and were also in contact with the police of Kanpur Outer and Kanpur

Dehat. “Two of the bodies were partially burnt. We have informed the two districts and have also stepped up vigil in our area,” he added.

“In the second wave of the pandemic, people have died in large numbers in villages and people out of fear are not helping one another. In such a scenario, they are dumping their dead into the rivers,” claimed Dinesh Nigam, the councillor from Maudaha, Hamirpur Nagar Palika.

On Thursday, some passers-by gathered on the bridge over the Yamuna river on Kanpur-Sagar Road in Hamirpur after spotting over a dozen bodies floating in the river. Later, the police control room was informed of it after which senior officers rushed to the spot. Cops said the river flows between Kanpur on the north and Hamirpur on the south and suspected that villagers living on the border areas apparently immersed the bodies.

Some locals claimed that one or two bodies had been seen floating occasionally but a large number of bodies seen for the first time indicated towards casualties due to corona infection.

Meanwhile, an investigation was under way and efforts were being made to establish the identities of the deceased.

In the second wave of the pandemic, people have died in large numbers in villages and people out of fear are not helping one another DINESH NIGAM, Councillor from Maudaha, Hamirpur Nagar Palika