Hazaribagh, July 11: The body of Tapas Soren, who immolated himself after being allegedly denied payment despite executing a work under NREGS, was cremated last night at his native village Veerakhap in Charhi.

The five-year-old son of the deceased, Sameer, performed the last rites in presence of villagers and political leaders at 11.45pm yesterday.

Blaming the officials of the district for his son’s death, the father of the deceased, Rupam Soren, said: “My son bagged the contract of constructing a well under NREGS but he was denied payment after the work was over.”

“He was not in a position to pay to labourers. He started selling utensils and goats to pay them but ultimately he took his life,” Rupam said.

MP Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Mehta seconded Rupam saying if the administration had acted on the complaint of Tapas, he would not have taken such a drastic step.

Sources in district headquarters admitted that Tapas’s case exposed corruption existing at government offices. Record in the deputy commissioner’s office revealed that from April to June this year around 38 compplaints had been registered against the malpractice and corruption in NREGS. But the district administration allegedly never took the complaints seriously.

Government officials, however, said that they were going through the complaints and action would be taken soon.