2 Purulia migrants travel back with bodies of 6 workmates

Purulia: Two Purulia migrants, who were injured in a highway accident in Uttar Pradesh that proved fatal for 24 fellow workers, had to set off for home in a truck sitting beside six rotting corpses.
At Mughalsarai in UP, they found a Bengal police team waiting for them who put the duo in an SUV and transferred the bodies to an ambulance. Back home after a nearly 870km journey, the two workers were admitted to hospital.The dead were among the victims of a truck-DCM crash in UP’s Auraiya early on Saturday.
When the Auraiya administration arranged for a truck to carry the dead, migrant workers Shibram Karmakar and Kailash Mahato too found themselves in the same vehicle. “We were asked to avail the same truck as there was no other vehicle available,” said Karmakar, a resident of Bongabari village in Muffasil police station limits.
“The corpses were packed in polythene sheets and kept on ice slabs. But the ice was melting fast in the scorching heat. The bodies had started to stink by then. But we had to get back home somehow,” added Karmakar, who used to work with the others at a marble factory.
The slow journey from Auraiya appeared to be a never-ending one for the duo. “The stinky air started choking us. Kailash started throwing up first,” recalled Karmakar. They had to get out and splash water on their faces.
“It was a condition no human should ever have to face. We decided to click photos and send it to our friends. We were desperate for help,” Karmakar said.
The photographs went viral within hours and the UP administration halted the truck at Etawah, over 50km away. The bodies and the two workers were then shifted into two ambulances. The duo was told to accommodate two other workers who were going to Dhanbad in Jharkhand. “None of us could eat or drink water. We consoled ourselves by saying we were going home,” Karmakar said.
At Mughalsarai, the Bengal police team took over. “They reached Purulia on Monday at 10.30am. The injured workers were admitted to Deven Mahato Sadar Hospital and the bodies were sent to their respective villages in separate vehicles,” said district magistrate Rahul Mazumdar.