A day after a man was seen walking with his wife’s body slung over his shoulder, another horrifying video has emerged from Odisha. A hospital worker stands over a dead body, presses it down with his foot and breaks the bones to make it a compact bundle.
An old woman while crossing a railway track after alighting from a train at Bahanaga railway station was suddenly knocked down by a goods train passing on the same track.
Even though the Railway Police was informed, they reached the hospital almost 12 hours later and the body had to be taken to the Balasore district hospital for post-mortem.
Since there was no ambulance, the police decided to send the body by train. Initially they tried to hire an auto to carry the body to the railway station, but they dropped the idea as the driver was demanding Rs. 3,500. Instead they asked Class-IV workers to carry it on their shoulders.
No ambulance was available – which has been exposed as a chronic problem in these districts that are among India’s poorest – so the railway police decided that the body would be sent by train. When hiring an auto-rickshaw looked expensive, the police allegedly asked a sweeper to arrange for the body to be taken to the station. By then, Ms Barik’s body had become stiff.
The Odisha Human Rights Commission has asked the district collector of Balasore and Inspector General of Railway Police to enquire into the incident.
The rights panel’s acting chairperson Justice BK Mishra took up the matter suo motu basing on the news reports.
Justice Mishra in the order asked IG of Police, Railways, Cuttack as well as Collector, Balasore to cause an enquiry into the matter and furnish their report to the Commission within four weeks hence.
