Denied cremation, man carries brother’s body for eight hours in Odisha

ROURKELA:  An illiterate rickshaw-puller carried the body of his brother on a trolley for several hours after locals refused to cremate the body in the area near Gopabandhupali slum here on Thursday. Sources said after their unauthorised mud house was removed at Indira Nagar in Gopabandhupali slum, Mangal Lohar and his family were staying at the railway station. However, his 45-year-old ailing brother Dharamveer died at 2 pm on Thursday near the Traffic Gate. Mangal was asked by the locals to take away the body.

Not knowing what to do, Mangal thought of burying the body, but wherever he went to bury the body, he was prevented from doing so. Finally, he reached Gopabandhupali and was seen crying. A social activist of the area, Prakash Paswan, was informed of his plight. After Paswan’s intervention, the body was cremated on Friday. Paswan said Mangal carried the body on his trolley rickshaw for about eight hours. Later, Panposh Sub-Collector H S Behera helped in preserving the body overnight at the morgue of Rourkela Government Hospital. The body was cremated after postmortem on Friday, he added.