Police step in to hold funerals of people who lived alone

Police have made the arrangements of several others who lived alone, or whose families stayed away for fear of the virus.

When an army Lieutenant Colonel, posted in Leh, called up Delhi Police seeking help with the cremation of his father-in-law, who lived in Dwarka and died on Saturday due to Covid-related complications, a team of policemen came forward to perform the last rites of the elderly man. The police team, in PPE kits, collected the body and took it to the cremation ground, where last rites were performed as per Hindu rituals.

A man wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) stands next to funeral pyres of those who died from the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), during a mass cremation, at a crematorium in New Delhi, India April 26, 2021. (REUTERS)

Police have made the arrangements of several others who lived alone, or whose families stayed away for fear of the virus. In some cases, families that have contracted Covid-19 are unable to make funeral arrangements for the deceased in their homes; leaving the police to shoulder the responsibility of arranging funerals.

In two cases reported on Saturday, police cremated a woman on her brother’s request in Dwarka; and in Karol Bagh, made arrangements for the cremation of an elderly couple who had died of Covid-19.

Deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka) Santosh Kumar Meena said they had received a call on Saturday, at around 3pm, from Lieutenant Colonel Soumen Mondal that his father-in-law, who lived in Dwarka, died of Covid-19.

“Mondal expressed his inability to come to Delhi at such short notice. On his request, the personnel from the Dwarka North police station made arrangements for the cremation of Mondal’s father-in-law Biswanath Pramanik,” Meena said.

The DCP said the same evening, a team from Dwarka South police station cremated a woman on her brother’s request. “We received another call that day about a woman, Jai Matnani, dying of Covid. The caller was her brother. He said there was nobody to take the responsibility of her cremation. On humanitarian grounds, we took over that responsibility and her body was immediately shifted to a cremation ground in Dwarka’s Sector 24, where she was cremated as per the Hindu rituals,” the DCP said.