An elderly couple in Bihar were forced to beg on the streets to try and raise a Rs 50,000 bribe that a hospital employee had allegedly demanded for the release of their son’s body from the morgue.

Videos circulating on social media purportedly show Mahesh Thakur walking barefoot with his wife, begging door to door, in Samastipur town as passers-by donate coins and currency notes.

Mahesh, a marginal farmer and farm labourer in his late 50s, told reporters that his son Sanjeev, 26, had been missing since May 25.

“We received a call from the Samastipur Sadar (District) Hospital saying his body (sent by police as an unclaimed corpse) was there. When we went there on Wednesday, a hospital employee demanded Rs 50,000 to release it. We are poor,” he said.

After begging for a while, the couple returned home, deciding to raise the rest of the amount in their village, Kasbe Ahar, about 13km from Samastipur town.

Embarrassed by the videos, the district administration got the body released and sent it in a vehicle to Mahesh’s home by evening. Sanjeev was cremated on Wednesday night.

“We have identified the person who allegedly demanded money. A probe is on,” district magistrate-in-charge Vinay Kumar Rai told The Telegraph.

Samastipur civil surgeon Sanjay Kumar Choudhary said the employee had a month and a half ago been accused of demanding Rs 3,500 to release another body and was suspended on Thursday following a probe into that complaint.

Choudhary added that the employee had denied the latest charge saying he had merely told Mahesh he would not release the body before the completion of police formalities even if he were offered Rs 50,000.