Tirupati: In a shocking instance, the body of a person who died of COVID-19 was buried in the grave using a JCB in Tirupati on Sunday. The video of the same went viral and soon sparked severe criticism on social media.
Tirupati Municipal Commissioner PS Girisha, who issued a clarification to the media, said that JCB was used only after the consent is taken from the dead person’s family, as he weighed heavy.
The authorities took him to the burial ground and last rites were performed as per the COVID-19 protocol.
The sixty-year-old patient, a resident of a village on the outskirts of Tirupati was admitted to state-run Sri Venkateshwara Ram Narayan Ruia Hospital last week. He was suffering from obesity and respiratory illness.
He died last Saturday and was bought to the burial ground on Sunday in an ambulance.
However, they chose to use the earthmover, which was brought there to dig the pit, to shift it from the ambulance to the grave, and dump it in the pit as he weighed around 170-180 kilos.
The municipal commissioner, in his clarification, admitted that the municipal staff should not have used the machine to dump the body in such a disrespectful manner. He said that they should have engaged another five or six more workers to carry the body physically.