Logo

Logo

One-off incident: Bengal govt on ill-treatment of dead bodies

Meanwhile, the video which surfaced on social media on Thursday showed a morgue employee dragging the body by the neck with tongs at a crematorium in Kolkata.

One-off incident: Bengal govt on ill-treatment of dead bodies

(Representational Photo: iStock)

Having faced criticism from both Opposition parties and Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar over a video showing ill-treatment of decomposed bodies, state home department today termed it as an “one-off incident” and said it has no links with the Coronavirus pandemic.

Attempts to “decontextualise the incident” and project it as a part of the pandemic despite the explanatory communiques to Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar “adversely affected the social mind”, the state home department tweeted.

The state yet again recorded a sharp single day rise in Corona cases with 454 people being tested positive with Kolkata alone reporting 158 cases, which is the highest in the city till now. The total Corona case count is 10,698 while 12 patients died today taking the Corona death toll to 463.

Advertisement

North 24-Parganas recorded 69 cases and five deaths. Four persons died in Kolkata and two died in Howrah, which recorded 62 cases.

One person died in South 24 Parganas.

A total of 4,542 Corona patients have been cured till now with 336 being discharged from hospitals since yesterday. Meanwhile, the video which surfaced on social media on Thursday showed a morgue employee dragging the body by the neck with tongs at a crematorium in Kolkata.

The employee could be further seen putting the body inside a van. Dhankhar sought a report from the state government and politics, health department and KMC termed the video to be fake and said that the bodies were unclaimed ones from a government hospital morgue.

Taking to Twitter the home department today said: “Government of West Bengal condemns untruths.”

“The recent misinformation drive to project an isolated incident of a particular agency’s handling of some unidentified and decomposed dead bodies lying (post accidents etc) in a morgue has no relationship whatsoever with the current pandemic. This has been communicated in writing and in person by most senior state officials even to Hon’ble Governor,” the home department tweeted.

Advertisement