Bihar: 60-yr-old labourer denied mortuary van, carries wife`s corpse on motorcycle

Purnia: A man in Purnia district of north-eastern Bihar carried the dead body of his wife on a motorcycle, to reach his village home for her last rites as the hospital authorities did not provide a mortuary van or an ambulance.

The incident occurred at Purnia ditrict of Bihar where 60-year-old Shankar Sah' wife Susheela Devi died of illness at a hospital here.

Despite all his efforts, Sah could not get any help from the hospital authorities and hence, he placed his wife’s body on a motorcycle, with Sah himself holding it as pillion rider, to transport it to their village home.

"After the death of my wife I was told to take away the body and when I requested the medical staff on duty for a vehicle, to carry it back to my village, they told me to arrange for it on my own", said Sah.

According to a report, Sah approached a driver of an ambulance, who demanded Rs 2,500, which he could not afford.

Asked about the incident, Purnia civil surgeon M M Wasim told media that "mortuary van wasn't available at the sadar hospital then and the one the hospital has is not functional."

District magistrate Pankaj Kumar Pal termed the incident 'unfortunate' and ordered a probe into the circumstances in which the woman’s body had to be transported on a motorcycle.

The Purnia incident comes a day after news footage of the body of a woman being wheeled in a garbage cart to the Sri Krishna medical college hospital in Muzaffarpur for post-mortem examination, caused an outrage on the social media. The episode prompted the district authorities to initiate an inquiry into the matter.