Thiruvananthapuram: The news of a man who was unable to pay for ambulance and had taken the body of his wife stuffed in the boot of a car to his native in Maharashtra, created a buzz in the State, with Kerala State Human Rights Commission yesterday directing authorities to conduct a probe into the incident.
Malappuram district collector and medical college hospital superintendent have been asked to conduct the probe and submit report within three weeks.
The man’s wife Chandrakala, aged 48, had died of cancer on 15 March. The ambulance operators had demanded Rs 45,000, which the man was unable to pay. So instead decided to take the body in the hired vehicle in which he, along with some of his relatives, was scheduled to return home.
According to media reports, no objection certificate (NOC) was given to the family as it was a natural death. Despite the family had taken a NOC to shift the body to Maharashtra, they did not seek help to transport the body by an ambulance, and had not specified how the body has to be transported. The medical college hospital superintendent also said he came to hear about the incident and that there was no request for help from the family to transport the body.
Some ambulance operators had demanded Rs 45,000 for transporting the body to Maharashtra, which the family could not afford and this was highlighted in local television channels. The Commission has on its own registered a case based on these media reports.