Mumbai: Fearing COVID-19 Infection, Muslim Man Denied Burial; Last Rites Later Performed As Per Hindu Rituals

The local administration gave 4 am time to bury the body of the deceased, but when the ambulance reached the spot, the graveyard authorities denied permission to perform the last rites of the deceased man.

The cemetery officials also protested against entry of the ambulance carrying the body.

Coronavirus In Mumbai: In what comes as a shocker from Mumbai amid the deadly Coronavirus outbreak that has brought the country to a standstill, a man who died on Tuesday evening after struggling from Covid-19 infection did not get a place for burial in the city. According to reports, a resident of Mumbai's Malad area passed away due to Coronavirus infection. After his death, the body was then taken to Muslim cemetery in Malvani area of Malad. The local administration gave 4 am time to bury the body of the deceased, but when the ambulance reached the spot, the graveyard authorities denied permission to perform the last rites of the deceased man. The cemetery officials also protested against entry of the ambulance carrying the body. As the graveyard authorities were skeptical about burying the body of a Coronavirus patient fearing infection, the administration tried to convince them that it would cause no harm. However, after hours of argument and denial from graveyard authorities to bury the body of the deceased, local administration took the body to the nearest Hindu cemetery ground and cremated it with all honours. It all happened as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), earlier this week, released a circular stating that all Covid-19 casualties in Mumbai will have to be cremated, irrespective of their religion. Hours later, the municipal board withdrew its order post consultations with state administration and Maha Vikar Aghadi government of Maharashtra. Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik took to Twitter to announce that the BMC has withdrawn the circular after he spoke to Commissioner Praveen Pardeshi. Maharashtra is one of the worse-hit states in the country with maximum number of Coronavirus positive patients and casualties. A 75-year-old man died due to Covid-19 in Mumbai, taking the number of such casualties to 12 in Maharashtra, where 19 new corona positive cases reported since Tuesday night took the total cases to 321. Among new patients, 16 are from Mumbai, 2 from Pune, and one from Buldhana, the highest increase in the past 36 hours from 220 to 321 cases. Besides Mumbai and Pune, the other cases are in Thane, Sangli, Nagpur, Ahmednagar, Yavatmal, Buldhana, Satara, Kolhapur, Aurangabad, Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri, Gondia, Jalgaon, Nashik, besides one from Gujarat. Of the 12 Covid-19 deaths, 9 were in Mumbai, and one each in Palghar, Pune and Buldhana.