TIRUPUR: After relatives of a man, who died following a road accident, cited Covid-19 pandemic and refused to claim his body, a Tirupur constable raised funds and performed the funeral himself.
The deceased was 60-year-old Joseph, a native of Ernakulam in Kerala. The man hailed from a poor family and was working as a cook for the past few months.
On September 6, when he was returning to Tirupur from the Erode restaurant at which he was employed, Joseph met with an accident.
His bike collided with another bike on Perumanallur Nal Road and he was thrown off the vehicle. He was rushed to the Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) with severe injuries to his head and chest on the same day.
A case was registered in Perumanallur police station in Tirupur, and, in two days, police constable Mayilsamy traced and informed Joseph's relatives in Kerala about the mishap. The police learnt that Joseph was unmarried.
Unfortunately, Joseph succumbed to his injuries on September 9.
When Mayilsamy informed the family of Joseph’s death, he was shocked to find that the relatives did not want to come and claim the body. They refused, citing the pandemic. He contacted them again, once the postmortem was completed in CMCH, but they still refused to come.
Dismayed that a man was being abandoned in his death, Mayilsamy decided to organise the funeral and burial himself. With some money raised from his friends, he conducted the last rites and burial of the man in Aathupalam near Coimbatore on Friday.