BALASORE: Three days after images of two sweepers carrying a body slung on a bamboo pole in Soro went viral on social media, Government Railway Police (GRP) authorities on Saturday placed an Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) under suspension for dereliction of duty.
SP (Railways) Sanjay Kaushal suspended ASI Pratap Rudra Mishra of Balasore GRP station following a preliminary inquiry.
On Wednesday, two sweepers were spotted while breaking the limbs and hips of a woman’s body in Soro Community Health Centre (CHC) to carry it in a sack. They later carried the body, packed in the sack and hung from a bamboo pole, till Soro railway station only to be transported to Balasore in a local train for autopsy.
The woman, identified as Taramani Barik (95) of Anji village, was knocked down by a goods train while crossing a railway track after alighting from a local train at Bahanaga railway station on Tuesday. She was received dead at the CHC.
The suspension order came after Collector Pramod Kumar Das directed the GRP authorities to submit a detailed report and take stern action against their staff over the incident. The GRP has submitted the report confessing to have committed the blunder. “Though the ASI stated that the sweepers were in an inebriated state and they did not obey his orders not to break the bones, the entire episode of disrespecting the body in his presence is unacceptable,” he said.
The GRP official, however, decided to carry the body till Soro railway station with the help of sweepers after an ambulance demanded more than `3,000 to carry it till Balasore, nearly 35 km from Soro. As body joints had stiffened, sweepers allegedly broke the limbs in a bid to pack it in a sack easily.
After the images went viral, Odisha Human Rights Commission (OHRC) had ordered an inquiry into the alleged disrespect to the body by the sweepers. Taking suo motu cognisance of media reports, the rights panel asked the IG of Police, Railways and the Collector of Balasore to furnish their reports within four weeks.
Meanwhile, the district administration has sanctioned ` 10,000 from the Red Cross fund and provided `3,000 from Harischandra Sahayata Yojana to Taramani’s son Rabindra Barik.