Two men, one of them wearing a PPE kit, were caught on tape rolling down a coronavirus patient's body from over a bridge into a river in Uttar Pradesh's Balrampur district.
The video was shot by some people who were driving by the spot.
After the visuals surfaced, police registered a case.
Balrampur Chief Medical Officer Vijay Bahadur Singh on Sunday said the body has been identified as that of Prem Nath Mishra, a resident of Sohratgarh in UP's Siddharth Nagar district.
"Prem Nath Mishra was hospitalised on May 25 after he contracted Covid-19 and succumbed to the disease on May 28. The body was handed over to family members as per the Covid-19 protocol. In the video, which went viral on social media, it can be seen that the body was thrown into the Rapti river."
A man wearing a PPE suit was seen throwing a body from a bridge into Rapti river in UP’s Balrampur district. The entire incident was caught on camera.
— Vijay Thottathil (@vijaythottathil) May 30, 2021
Balrampur police clarified in a video body was handed over to family!
Question is why crematorium s not provided,failed state? pic.twitter.com/7faVk1NxhJ
He said a case has been registered at the Kotwali police station in this regard.
Earlier in the month, several bodies were seen floating in the Ganga and Yamuna rivers in the state, triggering apprehensions that these were of Covid-19 patients.
The authorities too had urged people not to dispose of bodies into rivers.
