Authorities of Uttar Pradesh’s Balrampur district have booked a relative of a patient with coronavirus disease who was seen dumping the body in a river after he died earlier this week, informed a medical officer on Sunday.
An investigation has been initiated soon after a video of the body being thrown in the river came up, and the video went viral on the internet.
https://t.co/KOBuSi4puz https://t.co/9GJkHm9M3h
— BALRAMPUR POLICE (@balrampurpolice) May 30, 2021
After the video went viral, further investigation found that the patient was named as Premnath Mishra who is a resident of Sidharthnagar, was admitted to a hospital on May 25 and died on May 28, said Chief medical officer (CMO) Dr. Vijay Bahadur Singh.
“The body was handed over to his relatives following all Covid protocols and his relatives took it at the crematorium. Prima facie, according to the video, it seems that the body was thrown into the river by his relatives,” Singh said in a video tweeted by Balrampur Police.
He added that a case has been filed and action is being taken against the people who have seen the viral video.
#Balrampur– पीपीई किट पहने दो युवकों द्वारा राप्ती नदी पुल से नदी में शव फेंकते वायरल वीडियो के सम्बंध में सीएमओ डॉ वीबी सिंह की बाईट @Uppolice @AdgGkr @dgpup @AwasthiAwanishK @CMOfficeUP @InfoDeptUP @myogiadityanath @bstvlive @IndiaToday @News18UP @htTweets @hemantkutiyal pic.twitter.com/ZXGyBnAstm
— BALRAMPUR POLICE (@balrampurpolice) May 30, 2021
In the viral video, shot by passersby in a car, shows two men with the body in the pouring rain. The men, one of them in a PPE suit, are seen lifting the body onto the edge of the bridge over River Rapti in the 45-second clip.
Hundreds of bodies washed up on the banks of the Ganga, earlier this month, and thousands of the other bodies were also found buried on the sandbanks of in parts of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in shallow graves and many of these bodies were suspected to be of people who had died of coronavirus, whose family members didn’t have the money to cremate them.