Hariatara, Feb. 25: A group of villagers hired sweepers to dump a leprosy patient’s body on a garbage field and left her daughter to die with bed sores in a West Midnapore village fearing “infection”.

When the block develop- ment officer, who had been tipped off by someone in the vi- llage about the fate of the de-ad Behula Patar, arrived last midnight, there was no one to help him shift her daughter to hospital.

BDO Saumitra Hore and his driver carried Sandhya to an ambulance that took her away from Hariatara village near Kharagpur, about 150km from Calcutta.

“I was surprised by the villagers’ level of panic. Sandhya could barely speak and needed to be hospitalised immediately. But no villager came forward,” said Hore.

Leprosy is not infectious and is curable. Government hospitals are supposed to supply leprosy drugs free. But science is still to find a cure for ignorance.

The BDO had instructed the panchayat to lift Behula’s body from the patch of shrubs used to dump garbage and cremate her.

He had to return to the village this afternoon with police and doms (those who handle bodies). The body was taken to the Kharagpur State General Hospital for post-mortem.

“The panchayat told me no one in the village was willing to touch the body,” the BDO said.

According to neighbours, Behula, 60, who lost her husband over 20 years ago, had been suffering from leprosy for the past two-and-a-half years.

Sandhya lost her labourer’s job after her mother was diagnosed with the disease.

“She then started to beg for a living,” said Rukhna Mahato, 35, a housewife who used to give food and water to them.

Sandhya took ill three months ago and was unable to get up from bed. Since then, the mother and daughter had been living on food left at their doorstep by neighbours.

“We don’t know what the disease is but Sandhya became very ill. The mother and daughter lay on the floor on a mat woven out of date palm leaves. Behula, who had lesions on her hands and feet, used to take the food inside,” said Sabitri Mahato, 45.

When Rukhna went with food on Saturday, there was no response despite repeated knocks on the door. “Suddenly, I heard Sandhya saying in a faint voice that her mother was not moving since last night. I called other villagers who peeped in to see a swarm of flies around Behula. We realised she was dead,” said Rukhna.

Villagers said an NGO that runs a hospital to treat leprosy patients at Porapara, 7km away, wanted to treat Behula but she did not want to leave her unmarried daughter behind.

The villagers raised Rs 1,200 to hire sweepers from Kharagpur town and had Behula’s body lifted from her house and thrown in a field, said Rani Kisku, the village panchayat chief.

Doctors said Sandhya was suffering from festering bed sores and could have died of the infection if it was left untreated.

“She is also suffering from malnutrition. We are conducting tests to find out her actual ailment,” said block medical officer Pampa Roy.