The police in Uttar Pradesh’s Mahoba district were caught on video dumping a body into a garbage van on Sunday. The body was of a 50-year-old labourer and was being taken for last rites, NDTV reported.
The labourer’s son told the news channel that he was brought to the district hospital after he complained of fatigue. “But he died before he could be treated,” the son added. The man had returned to UP from Delhi a few days ago. A video of the incident showed two police officers carrying the body wrapped in a black bag as another official instructs them.
Unidentified officials alleged that the man’s family refused to take his body after the postmortem analysis, NDTV reported. The officials claimed that they had to persuade the family members to come to the hospital and then perform the last rites. They added that the man’s son himself arranged the truck.
The Navbharat Times reported a different version of the incident. According to the newspaper, the police were supposed to send the man’s body for a postmortem analysis after doctors at the hospital declared him dead.
An inspector and two constables went to the hospital for this purpose. But when they couldn’t find an ambulance to take the body for the autopsy, they asked the municipality to send the garbage van, according to the newspaper.
Mahoba Assistant Superintendent of Police Rajendra Kumar Gautam has ordered an inquiry into the incident and asked officials to submit a report within 24 hours, a police statement read, according to the newspaper. “Action will be taken against the accused,” it added.
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