Three men bury Covid positive father’s body in field, probe ordered

LUCKNOW: The police ordered an inquiry after a video clip showed three men burying the body of their Covid-19 positive father in an open field in eastern UP’s Sant Kabirnagar district, 235 kilometres east of Lucknow, an official said on Monday. The video went “viral” on Sunday. Sant Kabirnagar SP Dr Kaustubh said after taking cognizance of the video, an inquiry had been ordered into the incident. In the video, the trio was seen carrying the body to the field in an excavator along with the cot on which their father had died. They used the excavator to dig a ditch in the field to bury the body and the cot.

SHO of Dharamsinghwa police station has been directed to submit a report.

Action will be taken against those who flouted the state government’s order to cremate or bury the bodies of Covid -19 patients according to the Covid protocol, the SP said.

A district administration officer said Ram Lalit, 62, resident of Parsa Shukla village, complained of breathing difficulty on May 22. His sons took him to a private hospital in Gorakhpur. The hospital admitted him and he tested positive for Covid-19. Nevertheless, the sons got their father discharged from the hospital on May 23 to take him to their village. Ram Lalit died after reaching the village.

Instead of using a hearse, the sons hired an excavator to transport the body and the cot on which their father died.

The three sons, Buddhi Ram, Anil and Mohan, said when the villagers and neighbours came to know that their father was Covid positive, they closed their doors. “With no support from the villagers or the family members, we decided to hire a JCB machine to bury the body,” they said. Countering the sons’ statement, the village pradhan’s representative Triyuga Nand Gautam said the village panchayat members offered assistance to Ram Lalit’s sons in cremating of the body, but they turned down the offer. A medical practitioner Dr AK Singh said the district administration should ensure that the body of a Covid-19 patient was buried or cremated according to the protocol. Dumping a body in a field was in violation of the protocol, he said.