Kin cremate Kumbh dead after 66-hour wait for death certs
Times of India | 1 February 2025
12 Kolkata/Midnapore/Burdwan: The kin of three deceased pilgrims in the Mahakumbh stampede, who alleged they did not receive valid death certificates from the Uttar Pradesh administration, were finally able to cremate the semi-decomposed bodies more than 66 hours later on Friday. This was after they finally received valid death certificates and a videographed post-mortem examination over 700 km away from the place of death. A police constable from UP accompanied each of the three families as they carried the bodies back home.
"My mother's body started to decay , and I could see the bag carrying it turning wet. But I held on to the bag during the entire journey as we reached Kolkata on Thursday and had to wait for another day to get the postmortem done. We went through this harassment because the UP govt didn't give us a death certificate and urged us to leave the hospital with the body. A policeman even accompanied us to ensure we didn't stay back for the death certificate?" said Surajit Poddar, son of Basanti (61), a resident of Ashwininagar in Tollygunge.
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The body of Urmila Bhuiya (78) of Salboni reached Midnapore Medical College Hospital on Friday afternoon as her family members broke down after covering the arduous journey in an ambulance, carrying six people with Bhuiya's decaying body. "If losing my mother wasn't painful enough, we even went through this harassment of travelling with the body from 10pm on Wednesday and then again waited for the postmortem and the death certificate," said Rita Ghorai, her daughter, who was also injured. Bhuiya's family said they got scattered after the stampede. They had to scavenge through bodies at the hospital to finally spot her, marked as body number 32.
"We returned in the same clothes we wore for the dip. The document from there states the death was due to an unknown reason. I requested an autopsy several times, but they said it wouldn't be done and forced us to take the body home. None in UP even told us anything about compensation," said Kamal Maiti, her son-in-law.
The body of Binod Ruidas from Kulti in West Burdwan reached his village at Jamuria on Friday morning. The body was cremated in the evening, more than 66 hours after he died in the stampede. Ruidas, a toto driver, was missing for more than 30 hours since the stampede.
His brother-in-law, Bishnu, with whom he went to the fair, was asked to reach Motilal Nehru Medical College by an unknown caller.
At the medical college, Binod's body was found."Later that day, around 1 pm, UP police handed over his body and gave me Rs 15,000. The UP police also arranged for an ambulance to transport the body to Jamuria but without a death certificate," rued Bishnu. His wife said no compensation was given to the family. The couple has two daughters and a 10-year-old son.