NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police on Wednesday had to perform a peculiar task of tracing the body of a coronavirus patient after his family tried to flee with it to his hometown while it was being transported from the hospital to a burial ground here.
The family was intercepted and the vehicle traced by the central district administration, officials said. The man, infected with COVID-19, was admitted to the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital on June 1. He died on Wednesday.
Following the death, Qabrastan Ahle Islam, the burial ground at ITO, was informed to make necessary arrangements as a grave has to be dug up with the help of a JCB and there is a separate entry gate for transporting coronavirus bodies, the officials said.
The body left the hospital in an ambulance but did not reach the burial ground. Another ambulance with an UP number plate was kept ready near the burial ground by the family to take the body to Moradabad, they said.
The central district administration was alerted when the relatives of the patient ‘snatched’ the body.
In a letter to the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Karol Bagh, the Central district asked the police to trace the body immediately.
“A COVID positive dead body being transported from Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Central district to burial ground near the ITO/ Feroz Shah Kotla for burial was snatched from the attendants of the hospital by around 30 people,” the letter stated.
The body was being transported in a ‘forcefully hired ambulance’, the directive said.
The police said the family had travelled a few kilometres within the city, but then it was contacted by the district administration and asked to bring the body back to the burial ground. The victim’s relatives finally relented. The staff at the burial ground waited until 6 pm but the body did not arrive.
“It was only at around 10.30 pm that the police said the body has to be buried immediately. The body was finally buried post midnight,” said Mohammad, the caretaker of the burial ground.
(With PTI inputs)