A heart-wrenching video of a woman and two young men pushing the dead body of a man, wrapped in a white sheet, on a pushcart, had gone viral on social media on Saturday. It was later found that the incident took place in Athani taluk of Belagavi district in Karnataka, and was shot on July 17.
According to reports, the woman was taking her husband’s body, and the two other men in the video are her two sons. Speaking to the media, the woman said that they were allegedly forced to use the pushcart as none of their relatives helped them over fears of contracting COVID-19.
The deceased has been identified as a 55-year-old cobbler, who died on Wednesday night, due to heart ailments, reports said.
India Today reported that the man’s family members found him dead in their house and had to break open the door as he failed to respond to their calls.
ANI reported that the man was posthumously tested for the novel coronavirus, and his results returned negative.
But even his immediate family members could not get help from their relatives for the man’s last rites and so they were compelled to take his body on the pushcart to the crematorium. Due to financial constraints, they allegedly could not make alternative arrangements either.
This incident comes after a recent video, where the body of a COVID-19 patient was carried in an autorickshaw in Hyderabad. Incidentally, the Nizamabad Government General Hospital superintendent, Nageshwar Rao, resigned over the incident, taking moral responsibility.
TNM had reported that the body was handed over to the family members in total violation of the protocol for disposal of bodies of COVID-19 victims. The family members decided to hire an auto-rickshaw as there were no ambulances available for hire.
Further, it came to light that none of the accompanying family members nor the municipal worker was wearing Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) kits