Enquiry ordered after man carried son's body in bag in absence of ambulance

Chaibasa (Jharkhand), Dec 20 (PTI) A day after a man was allegedly compelled to carry the body of his four-month-old son in a bag from hospital to his home in Jharkhand's West Singhbhum district, the administration on Saturday ordered an enquiry into it.

"We are investigating the incident," Deputy Commissioner Chandan Kumar told PTI.

The DC said that, as per the information available till now, the man took the body without asking anyone in the hospital for an ambulance.

Though free ambulance for taking away the dead body is not available in the hospital, we could have tried for a solution had he approached anyone in the hospital, the DC said.

The district administration has taken cognisance of the incident and is enquiring into it, he added.

Meanwhile, former Jharkhand Chief Minister and Seraikela MLA Champai Soren on Saturday described the incident as "unfortunate".

"What can be more inhuman and regrettable even 25 years after the creation of Jharkhand"?, Soren said, referring to the incident on a social media platform.

A poor man had to carry the body of his infant in such a manner, he regretted.

On Friday, the four-month-old son of Dimba Chatomba, a resident of Baljodi village under Noamundi block of West Winghbhum district had died in course of treatment in Sadar Hospital, Chaibasa, the district headquarters town.

Chatomba reportedly purchased a bag and stuffed the body of his infant son before he left for his native village on a bus.

According to information, Chatomba had taken his son to a health camp organised in Noamundi where health workers had arranged an ambulance and sent them to Community health centre in Jagannathpur, considering the serious health condition of his son.

Following preliminary examination in the Community health centre in Jagannathpur, doctors referred them to Sadar Hospital, Chaibasa, where his son died on Friday afternoon in the course of treatment. PTI COR BS RG