A day after a tribal man in Odisha was forced to carry his wife's body on his shoulders, it has now emerged that lack of ambulance also forced a hospital's staff to mutilate an 80-year-old woman's body and carry the corpse on a bamboo pole. The incident has been reported in Odisha's Balasore district.
The woman, identified as Salamani Behera, had died after being run over by a goods train. She was a widow. Some photographs that emerged on Friday show two people — believed to be hospital workers — standing on her body and mutilating it. The body parts were then wrapped in a piece of cloth, tied with a rope and slung on a bamboo pole to transport it on their shoulders.
On Thursday, a tribal man named Dana Manjhi had claimed that he had to carry his wife's body from the hospital in Kalahandi district after authorities refused to arrange an ambulance. Manjhi was seen walking with the body on his shoulder. His wife, Amangadei, had succumbed to tuberculosis on Wednesday.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday said that he had been informed about the incident in Kalahandi. "This is extremely distressing. We are enquiring into the matter. We are also taking steps to have ambulances to transport bodies," he said.
