Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Human Rights Commission today asked the district collector of Balasore and Inspector General of Railway Police to enquire into alleged carrying of a corpse by tying it to a bamboo pole.
The rights panel's acting chairperson Justice B K Mishra took up the matter suo motu basing on the news reports.
According to the published news, an old woman while crossing a railway track after alighting from a train at Bahanaga railway station, was suddenly knocked down by a goods train passing on the same track.
Although she was rightaway taken to a hospital at Soro in Balasore district in an ambulance, the woman was declared dead by the doctor.
Although the railway police was well aware of the incident, two of their personnel reached the hospital after a delay of 12 hours to take the dead body to Balasore, it said.
Since rigor mortis had developed, those two police personnel in order to put the deadbody inside a sack allegedly broke its limbs by climbing over the body and finally carried it all the way from hospital to Soro railway station on their shoulders by tying it to a bamboo pole amid the full view of the public.
"Such action of the railway police personnel was bitterly criticised by the people in general and the intelligentsia have opined that the entire episode smacks of heartlessness on the part of railway police personnel in dealing with the deadbody," it said.
Justice Mishra in the order asked I.G. of Police, Railways, Cuttack as well as Collector, Balasore to cause an enquiry into the matter and furnish their report to the Commission within four weeks hence.
"Copies of the both the press clippings be sent to the I.G. of Police, Railways, Cuttack and Collector, Balasore for facilitating the enquiry," Justice Mishra said in the order.