Bengaluru: After denied permission to take his labourer-brother’s body back home on a flight from Bengaluru due to lack of COVID-19 negative certificate, an Odisha man streamed the cremation of the body on WhatsApp for his bereaved sister-in-law and nephew.
Sangram Sahu (33) from Sohad village in Dhamanagar Block of Odisha’s Bhadrak district, didn’t have enough money to get tested for COVID-19 to take the body of his brother Sanjit Sahu via flight.
Working as a security guard, Sangram was back to his village by train on Wednesday, bringing back the ashes of his 35-year-old brother.
The tragedy was unending for Sanjit since the inception of COVID-19 in 2020. He lost his job as a factory labourer following the nationwide lockdown was imposed in March last year. On returning home, things turned from bad to worse for Sanjit. He came back to Bengaluru in February 2021 along with his brother.
Both managed jobs in different manufacturing units in the tech corridor in Mahadevapura.
“As Sanjit was about to receive his first paycheck, another lockdown came into effect and he was left penniless. He was unable to send money back home to his elderly parents, wife and son and he endured severe mental agony,” Odia journalist and an acquaintance of Sanjit, Govind Barik was quoted as saying by The Times of India.
Sanjit couldn’t take it anymore and committed suicide by hanging himself from the ceiling of his accommodation in Mahadevapura on June 15. Sangram borrowed Rs 20,000 from friends and decided to fly his brother’s remains to Odisha on Sanjit’s wife Bharati and 17-old son Sagar Sahu’s urge to see Sanjit one last time.
“A local agency was contacted, and they booked two tickets to Kolkata on a 11pm Air Asia flight on June 17 for Sangram, and Sanjit’s corpse to be flown in cargo,” Govind said.
Unfortunately, Sangram wasn’t allowed to board the flight as COVID-19 negative certificate was compulsory for the deceased at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA).
“They missed the flight and had the option of booking another flight after taking a Covid test, but Sangram didn’t have the money for it. He had managed to collect Rs 20,000 with the help of friends and acquaintances after much persuasion and hardship,” Govind added.
Eventually, Sanjit was cremated by BBMP staffers at Sumanahalli crematorium on June 18 evening with the help from some locals.
However, Sanjit’s wife, son and parents were shown the last rites via WhatsApp recorded through Sangram’s phone.
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