A district collector turned protocol on its head, getting off the podium and saluting a policewoman he had just awarded for her role as a Covid warrior, electrifying what till then had been a low-key Independence Day ceremony in a Tamil Nadu town.

Inspector M. Allirani, beneficiary of the gesture by K.S. Kandasamy, had herself acted beyond the call of duty and protocol two months ago to physically remove the body of a man that even his family wouldn’t touch, fearing he had died of Covid-19.

At Saturday’s event on the Armed Reserve Police grounds in Tiruvannamalai, the collector had taken the usual salute from the podium before presenting Allirani with a medal, shield and a certificate and saying “Inga vaanga”.

It was an invitation to her to climb onto the podium. Kandasamy then stunned everyone by himself stepping down, turning to face Allirani and saluting her for a full 20 seconds.

She saluted back. The small gathering went wild, cheering both of them.

Inspector M. Allirani salutes collector K.S. Kandasamy Sourced by Correspondent

Shaking off his surprise, the official compering the event paused his run-through of the other Covid awardees to explain the significance of Kandasamy’s act.

“We have a ‘people’s collector’ who has uniquely honoured the inspector’s bravery and dedication as part of the frontline staff in this battle,” he announced.

Kandasamy told The Telegraph over the phone on Monday: “I had recommended Allirani for the State Bravery Award, named after Kalpana Chawla (the Indian American astronaut who died in the 2003 space shuttle disaster) but that did not come through.”

He added: “It isn’t only her; so many other officials from various departments are also working round the clock to contain the spread of the virus. Yet, the circumstances in which she personally removed an unclaimed body, shunned by everyone in the village, are what prompted me to honour her at the I-Day event in that manner. It was the most fitting way to acknowledge her brave, humanitarian act.”

Allirani could have gone by the rulebook and left the body to be removed by municipal staff, but did not, he said.

An official in Tiruvannamalai recalled Allirani’s mid-June act at Vandavasi, close to Thellar police station to which she is attached.

A 35-year-old man, Amavasai, had died apparently after accidentally touching an electric fence. As his body lay in a sugarcane field, none in the village would even come near the body, fearing he had died of Covid-19.

Allirani arrived and tried to persuade the villagers to help her take the body to hospital. “But even the man’s wailing mother and sister would not come forward to help,” the official said.

Allirani has been quoted as telling her superiors: “I appealed to all of them to lend me a hand, including the dead man’s family members, but none came.”

She then began dragging the body, singlehandedly pulling it out of the field. Kamal, an auto-rickshaw driver who was passing by, stopped seeing her plight and they together lifted the body into the three-wheeler.

When they arrived at the Adukkamparai government hospital in Vellore town, no one would help them. Allirani and Kamal again turned instant pallbearers until “we found a tricycle and wheeled him in”, the policewoman has told reporters.

Inspector M. Allirani receiving the State Bravery Award during the Independence Day event in Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu Sourced by Correspondent

Besides the post-mortem, a Covid-19 test too was done and the dead man tested negative. Allirani took steps to hand the body over to his family.

Allirani’s act of courage stands up to the area’s historical legacy too — for Vandavasi was the site of the January 1760 Battle of Wandiwash that decided the Third Carnatic War.

It saw the British, having already consolidated their position in Bengal and Hyderabad, defeat the French in south India and confine them to the small coastal strip of Pondicherry.