Bodies found in Buxar not from state, says Bihar; toll reaches 76

Bihar water resources minister Sanjay Kumar Jha said the state had no tradition of consigning bodies in rivers and said a probe revealed the corpses were four to five days old.

Bihar said on Friday that bodies seen floating in the Ganga in Buxar district were not from the state as five more corpses were fished out of the river in the same spot, taking the toll to 76.

Police personnel looking buried in the ground dead bodies were found Mahadev Ghat on the banks of river Ganga in Chausa village, in Buxar, (PTI)

Bihar water resources minister Sanjay Kumar Jha said the state had no tradition of consigning bodies in rivers and said a probe revealed the corpses were four to five days old. “The way dozens of corpses were found near Bihar’s borders is inhuman and an insult of Ganga…the bodies have come from far away,” he said, asking the central government to investigate the incident.

His comments came a day after the Union government said it had taken serious note of the issue and the National Mission for Clean Ganga wrote to all states, asking them to prohibit dumping of bodies in the river.

In Buxar, Chausa block development officer Ashok Kumar said big fishing nets were used at Mahadeva ghat Chausa village, where bodies were first spotted three days ago. He said the bodies seemed to have come from direction of UP. The Buxar administration has put big fishing nets near Chausa to prevent the bodies being washed further downstream.

“A team of doctors have also been called for autopsy of the bodies. Only after postmortem, the last rites of dead bodies are being done,” said Buxar sadar sub-divisional officer KK Upadhyay.