3 COPS DIRECTED TO PERFORM LAST RITES FOR 2 DAYS OVER ‘NEGLIGENCE IN DUTY’ CHARGE
HARIDWAR: Weeks after the news of three police personnel allegedly performing the last rites of an unidentified body without ascertaining the deceased’s identity came to fore in Haridwar district, the cops involved have been penalised, officials in the know of the development said on Tuesday.
Haridwar senior superintendent of police Ajay Singh took cognizance of the matter and directed the three police personnel to assist in performing cremations at three Ganga ghats for two days.
The trio had allegedly performed last rituals of an unidentified body on October 23 in Haridwar district’s Roorkee and the matter came to light on October 29, police said.
The family of the deceased, who was a resident of Roorkee’s Ramnagar, had filed a missing complaint at Ganga Nagar police station on October 20.
The deceased worked as a medical store owner, said police, adding, his family had allegedly recovered a suicide note about which they had apprised the cops. “The three police personnel deployed at Ganga Nagar police station — sub inspector Naveen Singh, constables Chetan Singh and Santosh — didn’t make sincere efforts to identify the deceased person and went ahead with cremation on October 23,” said a police official requesting not to be named.
“On October 29, the deceased’s wife visited the postmortem house at the Roorkee government hospital to inquire about his whereabouts.
After after looking at her husband’s picture, the hospital staff informed her that police deemed the victim’s body as unknown and cremated the body,” a senior police official said on anonymity.
“An internal probe was ordered by the district police chief and it came to light that the police personnel didn’t make any sincere efforts to identify the deceased even as the deceased’s missing complaint was already lodged at the local police station,” the senior police official, requesting not to be named, said.
“Negligence in such a sensitive matter is a serious lapse on part of their duty. This way (serving at cremation ghats), they will realise the mistake,” said SP (rural) Swapan Kishore Singh.