The body of Salamani Behera was to be taken to Balasore district hospital for post-mortem.
Days after reports of a man walking 10 kms with his wife's body slung over his shoulder created a furore, a disturbing video has emerged showing hospital workers mutilating the corpse of a dead woman.
The amateur video, shot in Odisha's Balasore, shows hospital workers standing over the dead body of a woman, breaking her bones, wrapping it in a sheet and slinging it on a bamboo stick before carrying it along.
The body of 80-year-old Salamani Behera was to be taken from a community health centre to the Balasore district hospital for post-mortem. Unavailability of an ambulance and the setting in of rigor mortis forced hospital workers to break the body at the hip.
The explanation from officials did little to relieve the pain of the family. All that the victim's son could do was helplessly watch the way his mother's body was being treated.
"They could have been a little more human. I initially thought of filing a case against the policemen. But who would act on our complaint," Ms Behera's son Rabindra Barik told NDTV.
Only a few days ago, lack of basic facilities in Odisha made Dana Majhi walk home with his wife's body on his shoulder.
With no one to attend to his dead wife, Mr Majhi walked out with the dead body unnoticed by hospital staff. He walked all the way till Sagada village, 13 km from Bhawanipatna where his wife had died in a hospital. It was only in the morning that people noticed he was carrying a dead body and called for help.
"When she died since there was no one so I wrapped the body in a
lungi and polythene and along with my daughter I started walking home as my daughter was crying," an overwhelmed Dana Majhi told NDTV after he was called to the collectorate to record his statement for the probe.
After nationwide outrage over the incident, the state government has now promised help and implementation of government schemes which help families in crucial times.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said, "It is distressing and we will see that its not repeated. We have started an ambulance service to bring dead bodies where they are required."