Bihar: Bhagalpur man forced to carry son’s body in a bag

PATNA: In a shocking case of administrative apathy, a man was forced to carry his minor son’s highly decomposed body in a cement bag after local police failed to arrange an ambulance or any other vehicle for carrying it to Katihar Sadar hospital for postmortem.
As the video went viral, state police headquarters on Sunday ordered an inquiry and suspended two junior police officers for not providing a vehicle to the man for carrying the body to Katihar Sadar hospital.Rajdev Raman, a sub-inspector of Gapalpur police station, and ASI Nandlal Choudhary of Kursela police station were suspended on the basis of an inquiry conducted by a DSP-rank officer of Katihar.
As per the police inquiry report, one Teju Yadav of Karari Tintanga village under Gopalpur police station in the neighbouring Bhagalpur district was crossing Ganga river with his 13-year-old son Hari Om by a small boat on February 26. Hari Om fell into the river when the boat was midstream. Teju tried his best to search his son for hours, but in vain. Later, he informed Gopalpur police (Bhagalpur) the following day about it. Police made an entry in the station diary in this connection and advised him to continue searching the body in the lower stream of the river.
On March 3, a highly decomposed body was seen near Kheria Ghat under Kursela police station in Katihar district. Kursela police informed the Gopalpur police about the recovery of the body. Teju, based on an information received from the Gopalpur police, rushed to Kheria Ghat and identified the body as of his son on the basis of the shirt he was wearing. But the body was highly decomposed and giving a foul smell.
After inspecting the body, the police officers of both Gopalpur and Kursela police stations asked Teju to carry his son’s body to the Sadar hospital at Katihar.
Finding no option, Teju put the remains of the body in a cement bag and walked on the road. As the body was giving a foul smell, some passersby inquired and made a video of the man walking with his son’s body.