Shocking: Man in PPE kit dumps COVID patient's body in river in Uttar Pradesh, arrested

Lucknow, May 30: Shocking visuals emerged from Uttar Pradesh's Balrampur where two men, one of them in a PPE suit were seen dumping dead bodies of covid-19 positive patients into the river. The incident was caught on camera by a couple of people who were driving by the spot in Balrampur district on May 28.

One of the men seen in the video has been identified as his nephew and the other as a friend of his and they were arrested by the cops.

According to a NDTV report, the Chief Medical Officer of Balrampur has confirmed that the body was indeed of a Covid patient, and the relatives were trying to dump it in the river.

"Preliminary investigations have revealed that the patient was admitted to hospital on May 25, and he died three days later. As per Covid protocol, the body was handed over to his relatives. The relatives threw the body into the river. We have filed a case and strict action will be taken," said Balrampur Chief Medical Officer V.V. Singh.

In an advisory, the Centre had directed Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to prevent dumping of dead bodies in the Ganga and its tributaries, and focus on their safe disposal and a dignified cremation after corpses were seen floating in these rivers following a spurt in the number of coronavirus cases.

Thousand of bodies have been fished out of the Ganga in Uttar Pradesh's Ghazipur and Ballia districts, and Bihar's Buxar district in the past few days. Local administration suspect the bodies could belong to Covid patients but testing is difficult because the corpses are decomposed.