COVID-19: Woman escapes quarantine centre to perform last rites of dead husband

In a heart breaking incident, a woman was forced to escape from quarantine centre as no one from her family, relatives came forward to perform last rites of her dead husband. The shocking incident has taken place at Munger in Bihar.

The woman’s 28-year-old husband, Vikas Mandal of Patan village in Ramnagar had tested positive for COVID-19 and his health deteriorated on May 13. After his health deteriorated his wife Kanchan Devi admitted him to a hospital in Begusarai. Vikas Mandal died while undergoing treatment there.

As she was alone in the hospital, she sought the help of his father-in-law for cremation of Vikas Mandal. But no one came forward to help. But Kanchan's mother came to the rescue. They both decided to go to Munger. Also on May 14, she contacted her husband's family once again.

But they refused to come. She then asked the neighboring priests but they also refused. Then, they decided to go to Samastipur’s Patalia village under Vibhutipur police station, the native village of Kanchan Devi. But instead of helping them, the male members of the family complained to the district administration. Health officials in Samastipur ignored the issue and sent them the two women to quarantine center.

Kanchan and her mother appealed to the quarantine center officials to release them. Finally, six days after her husband's death, Kanchan and her mother managed to escape from the quarantine center. On May 18, she reached Begusarai. Begusarai SDO Sanjeev Kumar Chaudhary said the victim had requested the health officials at the hospital to hand over her husband's body. We then immediately took the initiative and handed over the bodies for cremation. We arranged an ambulance. The body was taken to the cremation ground on Simaria Ghat where Kanchan performed the last rites.