Unable to carry body, Odisha workers break woman's bones, stuff it in bag

Balasore: In a shocking case of apathy, a worker at a government hospital in Odisha broke the bones of an old woman’s dead body and stuffed it in a bag as there was no ambulance to carry the corpse to the railway station.

According to a report in NDTV, the 76-year-old woman, Salamani Barik, died on Wednesday after being run over by a train. She was taken to a community health centre in Balasore district’s Soro town for post-mortem.

However, the body was supposed to be shifted to a hospital in the district headquarters as the facility for post-mortem was not available at the health centre.

Due to the unavailability of ambulance at the health centre, the railway police asked a sweeper to find a way to carry the dead body to the station, 2 kms away.

The body of the woman was broken at the hip and stuffed in a plastic bag before being bundled up in a white cloth. It was then suspended from a bamboo pole, which was carried on shoulders by two workers.

"They carried my mother in a broken condition. I am helpless to do anything. I pray to the authorities for justice," the deceased's son Rabindra Barik said.

The Odisha Human Rights Commission has demanded an explanation from the railway police and the Balasore district authorities on the issue.

The issue of absence of basic facilities, like ambulance, at government hospitals started to emerge when a video of a man from Odisha’s remote Kalahandi district carrying his wife’s dead body on his shoulders was shared on internet.

The man decided to walk with his wife’s dead body on his shoulders when the hospital authorities failed to provide a government mortuary van or an ambulance. He had walked about 12 kms by the time journalists in that area reached him.