PATNA: In an appalling case of administrative apathy, a man was forced to carry his son's body in a plastic bag after local police failed to arrange an ambulance or any other vehicle for carrying the highly decomposed body to a government hospital for carrying out postmortem.
The incident was reported from a village under Kursela police station in Katihar district.
State’s police headquarters on Sunday ordered suspension of two junior police officers for not providing a vehicle to the man for carrying the body to the Sadar hospital at Katihar. The two police officers were suspended on the basis of an inquiry conducted by a DSP-rank officer of Katihar district police.
As per the police inquiry report, one Leru Yadav, a resident of a village under Gopalpur police station in the neighboring Bhagalpur district, was crossing Ganga river through a small boat with his 13-year old son on February 26 last. While the boat was in the midway of the river stream, the son fell down in the river and swept away. Leru tried his best to search the son for hours in the river. Later, he informed Gopalpur police (Bhagalpur) about his son’s drowning in the river on the following day. Police made an entry in the station diary in this connection and advised Leru to continue searching the body in the lower stream of the river.
A few days back, a highly decomposed body was seen near Kheria Ghat under Kursela police station of Katihar district. As Kursela police informed the Gopalpur police about recovery of a highly-decomposed body, Leru, based on information received from the Gopalpur police- rushed to Kheria Ghat. He identified the body as that of his son on the basis of the shirt he was wearing. But by the day, the body was highly decomposed and giving a foul smell.
After inspecting the body near Kheria Ghat, the police officers of both Gopalpur and Kursela police stations asked Leru to carry his son’s body to the Sadar hospital at Katihar. After giving this instruction to Leru, the police officers left the spot.
Finding no option, Leru put the remains of the highly-decomposed body in a plastic bag and began walking on the road with the body. As the body was giving a foul smell, some passerby inquired and made a video of the man walking with his son’s body.
As the video went viral, police headquarters ordered an inquiry. The police officers who were suspended on Sunday are Rajdev Raman, sub-inspector of Gaplapur PS and Nandlal Choudhary, an ASI of Kursel PS. "Both officers were suspended on the charge of negligence in duty," a police order said.