Ganjam: In a heart wrenching incident the family members of a youth who died yesterday, had to drag the dead body upto the burial ground after villagers denied funeral right at the common graveyard of the village. The incident took place in Kabisuryanagar of this district in Odisha.
As per reports, a youth named Somanath Patra from Gopinathpatna sahi of Kabisuryanagar was suffering from fever and cold related problems for the last ten days.
On Tuesday, as his condition deteriorated he was being taken to the COVID hospital at Sitalpalli. However, on the way only, he succumbed.
After his death, the ambulance brought back the body to the village. Then when the family members wanted to perform the last rites in the burial ground of the village, the villagers did not permitted them due to fear of Coronavirus infection.
In this course, as the dead body remained in the ambulance for hours, finally the siblings of the deceased opted to drag the dead body to the burial ground. However, as the villagers did not permit them to bury the body in the ground of the village, they dragged it up to an isolated place by the side of the main road behind a petrol pump in the river bank and buried the body with the help of a JCB.
Corona pandemic has brought with it huge disparity when even dead bodies are being denied a proper and respectful last rite.
Kalinga AI