The sight of a weeping man, hauling a handcart with something wrapped in a blanket, stopped people dead in their tracks in Sagar on Saturday morning. A few women stepped close to inquire and were horrified to learnt it was a body being carried home.
In yet another case reflecting the alleged callous attitude of authorities, a man had to pull the dead body of his relative on a handcart for 6 kilometres in Sagar on Saturday.
Only last week, following the non-availability of a stretcher in the district hospital of Chhatarpur, the dead body of a man was carried by his family members from the hospital ward.
It was a scorching summer afternoon in Sagar on Saturday and the mercury was touching 42 degree Celsius, when the man was spotted carrying something wrapped in a blanket. Sweating and crying profusely, he was pulling the cart in haste, when two women first spotted the distressed man and talked to him. The man was identified as 40-year-old Suresh Ahirwar, a labourer by profession.
People soon learnt that he was carrying the dead body of Prakash Ahirwar, his brother in law. He was ill and had died in the early hours on Saturday. A resident of Bhagat Singh ward, 38-year-old Prakash was admitted to a hospital on Friday.
The dean of the medical college hospital where Prakash was admitted, Girish Patel said, “An unknown man who was admitted in the hospital had died last night. The superintendent was present in the hospital premises till 2 pm but there was no request for a hearse. We have Red Cross hearse to carry bodies.”
Suresh told the local media that he is a a poor man and an auto would have charged him Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 and he was not carrying that amount of cash with him.
Suresh said that after the death of his brother-in-law, he had approached a policeman. “The cop was not too sure whether I would get a hearse. So, I decided to carry my brother-in-law’s body on a handcart,” said Suresh.
Suresh said that after getting the news of his brother-in-law’s death, he had first gone back to arrange the handcart.
Additional district magistrate of Sagar Avinash Rawat said, “A probe has been ordered to find out under what circumstances the poor man had to carry the dead body on handcart.”
In 2016, Dana Majhi, tribal from Kalahandi district of Odisha made headlines after he was forced to carry the dead body of his wife for 10 kilometres because he could not pay for the transport.
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