The Division Bench of Justices Rajan Roy and Pankaj Mithal of Allahabad High Court heard the submissions made by the Hathras victim’s family, the State of Uttar Pradesh and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Suo-Moto Inre: Right to Decent & Dignified Last Rites/Cremation (PIL Civ No. 16150 of 2020) on November 25.

Senior Counsel S.V. Raju appeared for the State, Miss Seema Kushwaha appeared for the petitioner family and Anurag Singh made submissions on behalf of the CBI. The matter will now be taken up on December 16, 2020 at 3:15 pm.

Transfer of District Magistrate

In the previous hearing in early November, the court had expressed its state of conundrum with respect to the transfer of the District Magistrate. It questioned the State counsel S.V Raju whether “it was fair and reasonable to allow the District Magistrate to continue at Hathras during pendency of the investigation as also these proceedings before us regarding illegal cremation etc.”

For the purposes of fairness and transparency in the matter, the court also asked the counsel whether it would not be appropriate to “shift him elsewhere during pendency of these proceedings without there being any stigma attached to such an action.” Senior counsel S. V. Raju had informed the court that he would convey this to the State Government and get back to the learned Bench on this issue by the next date on November 25.

During the November 25 hearing, the senior counsel submitted that “after pondering over the issue the Government has decided not to transfer the District Magistrate.” He gave four reasons for it:

1.      Firstly, a political game is allegedly being played and the transfer of District Magistrate has been made a political issue allegedly by political parties with oblique motives so as to exert political pressure.

2.      Secondly, there is no question of the District Magistrate tampering with the evidence relevant to the investigation.

3.      Thirdly, security of the family is now in the hands of the CRPF with which the State Government and its authorities have no concern.

4.      Lastly, the investigation itself is being conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the State Government does not have any role to play.

The court also noted that senior counsel Raju “attempted to justify the cremation of the victim in the night by narrating the facts and to contend that the District Magistrate did not commit any wrong in this regard.”

CBI’s report

Advocate Anurag Singh submitted a report on the status of the investigation by the CBI into the alleged gangrape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit girl to the court. He also apprised the court that CBI is expected to finish its investigation by December 10, 2020.

The CBI has also prepared an affidavit on the same and the court directed it to be filed in the Registry after serving its copies upon all the concerned counsels.

Audio-video evidence

The court also ordered the office to index the audio-video material provided by different Media Houses in the proceedings. “The index will mention the material annexed with report of the amicus curiae Abhinav Bhattacharya and those annexed with the affidavits filed by the State”, said the Bench.

The court also directed that from now on, any audio video material available with Media Houses and Newspaper Houses can be filed in the proceedings through the amicus curiae Abhinav Bhattacharya who is assisting the learned Senior Counsel JN Mathur in this matter.

Compensation and employment to family

The counsel for the petitioners, Advocate Kushwaha submitted that a job which was promised by the Government to one of the members of the victim’s family has not been provided yet. The State has asked for more time and submitted before the court that they “shall ascertain the facts in this regard and assist the Court accordingly on the next date.”

In the previous hearing of the matter on November 2, the petitioners had submitted the same grievance of not having secured employment from the State of Uttar Pradesh. But the State remains oblivious to the concerns of the aggrieved family.

Advocate Kushwaha had also placed a letter from the District Magistrate dated October 23, 2020 before the Bench. The letter alleges that the District Magistrate has not provided compensation to any member of the victim’s family alleging that the family itself refused to accept it.

Advocate Kushwaha argued that “the family never declined to accept the compensation, but it is only in an emotional moment that one of the family members who has been referred in the earlier order as ‘BW’ stated that once we have lost the girl no amount of money can compensate her loss which did not imply refusal to accept the compensation.”

She alleged that despite the family’s acceptance to receive compensation, the District Magistrate has not sanctioned the money and made such recitals in the letter dated October 23.

Slotting the next hearing for December 16, the court gave time to all parties to file responses to any pleadings if necessary.  

The order may be read here: 

Related:

Hathras case: High Court seeks status report from CBI
CRPF to provide protection to victims family in Hathras case: SC

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The Agra Police have launched an inquiry into an incident that took place a few days ago whereby a Dalit woman’s family was forced to remove her body from the funeral pyre by ‘upper’ castes. This incident took place in Kakarpura village in Etawah district, approximately 20 kms from Agra in Uttar Pradesh. Pooja, a 26 year old Nat woman succumbed to a uterus infection on July 19 and her family was all set to perform her last rites at the gram sabha cremation ground the following day. Her body was already placed on the pyre all set to be lit when members of the Thakur community intervened.

The family was eventually forced to take the body to the Nagla Lal Das cremation ground 4 kms away. This is apparently the designated cremation ground for people not hailing from ‘upper’ castes. Local Thakurs reportedly justify the segregation as “following rules” with some even insisting that the Nats, a nomadic community, should be grateful that Thakurs even gave them land in the area to settle down in the first place.

Pooja’s husband Rahul told TOI “The land marked for cremation of those from our community had been encroached on by a Brahmin. So, we decided to cremate Pooja on the grounds everyone in the village uses. We set up the pyre, her four-year-old son Rohan was about to light it when a group of Thakur men came running. They asked us to stop the cremation.” This led to a stand-off that lasted almost six hours despite the presence of the Gram Pradhan, the police and local leaders.

Circle Officer BS Veer Kumar told TOI, “No FIR was lodged because the family didn’t file a written complaint. The matter was resolved peacefully”. When asked why Pooja’s father-in-law Brijpal told the Indian Express, “We did not want a dispute. We are very poor and can’t take on the people as they are affluent.”

The Agra police have taken suo moto cognisance of the incident and Agra Additional SP (West) Ravi Kumar told the Indian Express, “We took suo moto cognizance of the issue after seeing reports in media and had sent a police team to inquire into the matter. No written complaint was received from the family of Pooja, but we are getting the matter probed by Circle Officer (Achhnera) B S Veer Kumar and action will be taken accordingly”.

Even BSP chief Mayawati took to her Twitter account demanding a high level inquiry, “This is a shameful and condemnable incident. To stop such incidents from happening again, the state government should order a high-level probe and take strict action…”

Related:

Nat woman denied cremation at ‘upper’ caste funeral ground in UP
ISKCON’s sanitised version of the caste system does not foster progress of the lower castes
SC/ST Commission in UP headless for over 7 months

The post Thakurs deny Dalit woman cremation, police initiate probe appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The subject of disposing of bodies of those who have succumbed to Covid-19 has been a contentious one as people of different faiths perform the last rites of their deceased in different ways, and it always a deeply emotional and personal choice.

At the time of publishing this piece, over 420 people had succumbed to the coronavirus in India. But, unlike the quite dignity one expects at a funeral, in at least two cases, families had to suffer the additional anguish from running from pillar to post to bid their loved ones a final goodbye.

On April 2, the body of a man who died of Covid-19 had to be cremated after trustees of a burial ground in Malad-Malwani denied the family permission to bury the body, reported Deccan Herald. The victim, a resident of Collector Compound in Malwani died early on April 1 at a civic-run hospital in Jogeshwari. The family alleges that despite getting permission from the municipal authority to carry out the burial, they were turned away because the victim was Covid-19 positive.

Similarly, on April 14, NDTV reported that residents of Ambattur in Chennai did not allow the cremation of the body of a doctor hailing from Andhra Pradesh to be conducted in their area as he was a Covid-19 victim. Police had to intervene and take the body back to the morgue. The body was eventually cremated at another location.

WHO okays both, burial and cremation

Most of the panic is on account of fear of contamination. But the World Health Organisation (WHO) has set the record straight on the subject. In an interim guidance issued on March 24, the WHO said, “Except in cases of hemorrhagic fevers (such as Ebola, Marburg) and cholera, dead bodies are generally not infectious. Only the lungs of patients with pandemic influenza, if handled improperly during an autopsy, can be infectious. Otherwise, cadavers do not transmit disease. It is a common myth that persons who have died of a communicable disease should be cremated, but this is not true. Cremation is a matter of cultural choice and available resources.”

The WHO reiterated, “People who have died from COVID-19 can be buried or cremated.” However, it laid down the following guidelines:

• Confirm national and local requirements that may dictate the handling and disposition of the remains.

• Family and friends may view the body after it has been prepared for burial, in accordance with customs. They should not touch or kiss the body and should wash hands thoroughly with soap and water after the viewing;

• Those tasked with placing the body in the grave, on the funeral pyre, etc., should wear gloves and wash hands with soap and water after removal of the gloves once the burial is complete.

The entire set of guidelines may be viewed here:

This is why when the BMC issued a circular on April 1, directing that bodies of all Covid-19 victims be cremated irrespective of religion, to many people this appeared to be an imposition of the rituals of the majority community upon members of minority communities who usually bury their dead. Hindustan Times reported that the circular by BMC Commissioner Praveen Pardeshi said, “All bodies of #COVID19 patients should be cremated irrespective of religion. Burial will not be allowed. The funeral should not involve more than 5 people.”

But the circular was withdrawn within hours after NCP leader Nawab Malik intervened. Malik tweeted, “This is to bring to your kind attention that I have spoken to @mybmc Commissioner Mr. Praveen Pardeshi regarding the circular issued by him for cremation of those who have lost their lives due to the #CoronaVirus. The said circular has now been withdrawn.”

This is to bring to your kind attention that I have spoken to @mybmc Commissioner Mr. Praveen Pardeshi regarding the circular issued by him for cremation of those who have lost their lives due to the #CoronaVirus.
The said circular has now been withdrawn.

— Nawab Malik نواب ملک नवाब मलिक (@nawabmalikncp) March 30, 2020

Shortage of burial grounds

Meanwhile, Dolphy D’Souza, spokesperson of Bombay Catholic Sabha sheds light on a more pressing issue. “Land is very limited in cities like Mumbai and bodies take a long time to decompose, leading to a shortage of grave sites. There is a need for more burial grounds to be made available, or at least the establishment of composite funeral sites,” he says. This is a deeply personal religious choice and how we choose to bid our loved ones goodbye is always a sensitive and emotional matter.

Christians are learning to cope with the Covid-19 induced new normal though. D’Souza says, “Before this crisis online church services were unheard of. The Holy Week has traditionally been about the community coming together, families and friends praying together, but we learnt to deal with the situation, because we had no choice.”

As far as the subject of faith is concerned, while Christians traditionally bury their dead, countries such as Singapore have taken to compulsory cremation owing to a paucity of land. The ashes of the deceased are then store in urns inside crypts. D’Souza elaborates upon this saying, “It is all about changing mindsets. Already Australia has cremations. When you are faced with circumstances where you don’t have a choice, what can you do? Even in Mumbai, in many parishes shroud burial is being encouraged as opposed to coffin burials. Teak coffins, for example, take an especially long time to allow the body to decompose, where as shroud burials expedite the decomposition process, making the grave reusable after some time. There is also a push to encourage sharing of graveyards between churches like we do in Kalina and Vakola,” he explains.

Jharkhand looking for solutions

In Jharkhand, a cabinet committee comprising Health Minister Banna Gupta, Finance Minister Rameshwar Oraon, Labour Minister Satyanand Bhokta and Transport Minister Champai Soren is looking at fixing safe spaces for burials and cremations. The state has 28 confirmed cases and two deaths due to Covid-19 so far.

Banna Gupta told The Telegraph, “The public opposition at Ratu graveyard over the burial of a Covid-19 positive patient was discussed at length at the cabinet meeting on Tuesday. We are thinking of setting up special mortuaries in at least dedicated Covid-19 hospitals across the state for Covid-19 deaths. We are also planning to identify lands far from inhabited areas for cremation/burial of Covid-19 patients. However, the decision would be taken by the sub-committee.” As per the 2011 census, over 14 percent of the population in Jharkhand were Muslims, while just over 4 percent were Christians.  

Communalisation of Corona Crisis

The conversation surrounding the proliferation of the coronavirus has already become extremely communal in wake of the Tabhlighi Jamaat case, and fear of persecution is driving many members of the Muslim community. 

Recently,  news that a  Civil hospital in Ahmedabad, which had earmarked 1,200 beds for COVID-19 patients, segregated its wards on the basis of religion, shocked everyone. Muslim patients were sent to one ward, and Hindus patients were sent to another.

Anti-minority sentiments had anyway started bubbling over since the time of the public protests against the National Register of Citizens (NRC), National Population Register (NPR) and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

Once the fiasco at the Nizamuddin Markaz came to light, Muslims were summarily demonized and accused of nothing short of willful bio-terrorism. Adding fuel to fire were certain communal media houses and social media trolls. But the hate left out of television and cell phone screens and infected the common populace soon.

Things became so ugly that on April 2, the Delhi Minorities Commission had to issue notice to the Vice Chancellor of Delhi University when it was discovered that various teachers of the university were posting virulent messages of hate on social media. saying that the Commission is surprised that some teachers are “spewing venom against the Muslim community saying that they should be put in gas chambers and that doctors should not treat them, etc.”  

The Commission further said in its notice “We find this very very disturbing that such elements should be ‘teaching’ in a prestigious university like yours.” The Commission, which has quasi-judicial powers and functions as a civil court, has asked the VC to constitute an enquiry committee to probe these posts and take appropriate action against these teachers. The Commission has given a month’s time to the VC to file his reply and action taken report.

Amidst such a state of fear, is it surprising that members of the minority community are feeling targeted, oppressed and ostracized? The bury vs cremate debate only adds fuel to the flames of these deep-seated fears.

Related:

Communalisation of a pandemic

Indian churches put anti-Covid measures in place, some move services online

Hate video calls for banning Muslims from Delhi colonies

Maulana Saad’s error of judgement has put an entire community at risk

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