AMBALA: Police cane-charged a group of people in a village here on Monday after they tried to disrupt the cremation of an elderly woman over suspicions that she might have died of COVID-19 infection.
Police said that residents of Chandpura village, adjoining the Ambala cantonment, attempted to disrupt the last rites of the woman being performed at the local cremation ground in the evening. The villagers suspected that the woman might have died of COVID-19 infection and feared that the cremation would spread the virus in the area, they said.
The crowd was assured that there was no such risk and asked not to oppose the cremation, police officials said. Police said the woman died at a civil hospital at Ambala Cantt in the afternoon. She had been admitted there after complaining of breathing problems, they added.
Hospital sources said that doctors collected her sample and sent it for testing as a precautionary measure. When the relatives of the deceased reached the cremation ground at Chandpura, the villagers opposed them, the police said.
They said that senior police officers reached the area but the villagers refused to budge. Later, police had to use mild lathi charge to control the situation. The deceased was cremated there in the presence of the police, the officials said.
Ambala SP Abhishek Jorwal said around a dozen villagers were taken into custody and further investigations were underway.