A video has emerged on social media purportedly showing five policemen in Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia district bringing out a body from the Ganga and burning it with the help of car tyres and petrol.

The Uttar Pradesh administration has asked the police to step up vigil to stop people from dumping bodies into the rivers or burying them on riverbeds.

Vipin Tanda, the district superintendent of police, has identified the five cops and suspended them on the charges of insensitivity and dereliction of duty.

The authorities have been instructed to bury unidentified bodies at specified locations 50 metres from the river if they are not bloated, and cremate highly decomposed bodies.

The video shows a villager of Phephna, on the orders of the five policemen, pouring petrol on the body 5ft from the river and burning it with the help of tyres.

Tanda said: “Local people had informed the police on May 15 that dogs were pulling out a body from the river. The policemen went there to take stock of the situation and decided to burn the body instead of cremating it properly. It was an unwarranted and insensitive act. We have suspended the cops.”

“An officer of the rank of additional superintendent of police is probing the case and further action will be taken against the constables after we receive the report.”