Two men died after complaining of suffocation in their PPE kits while travelling to cremate their uncle, a Covid-19 victim, with the accompanying officials allegedly refusing to give them water or let them take the suits off for fear of catching the infection.

Family members of Jammu residents Vimal and Vipin Zadoo, both aged about 40, further alleged that the police and health officials had forced them to push their ambulance when it got stuck, and to carry the body for the last 500 metres despite their condition.

The two deaths have also turned the spotlight on how the stigma attached to the disease has led people living near cremation grounds in Jammu to refuse Covid-19 bodies, a trend that had forced the Zadoos into a long hunt for a cremation spot under scorching heat.

A cousin who was with Vimal and Vipin — Vijay Zadoo, son of the dead man —too complained of suffocation in the PPE kit and is recovering in hospital.

The family alleged the officials had taken two of the men to hospital — where one died — while leaving the third to die near the secluded riverbank cremation spot.

Officials at the Jammu deputy commissioner’s office have denied wrongdoing but said a magisterial probe had been ordered.

Vijay’s 65-year-old father had died of the coronavirus infection on Wednesday evening while Vijay’s mother and brother were under treatment for the infection.

On Thursday morning, Vijay, Vimal and Vipin answered the authorities call to relatives to accompany the body for cremation.

They were directed to wear PPE kits as part of the protocol. Over the next few hours, three ambulances — one with the body and the relatives and the others carrying police and government health officials — went searching for a cremation spot in stifling heat.