Employees of a private airline load Yalavarthi Sweeya’s coffin on a trolley at Patna airport on Friday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Sept. 2: Twenty-two-year-old Yalavarthi Sweeya died a heartbreaking death in Patna falling off the terrace of her hostel yesterday. But the city, instead of treating her mortal remains with compassion, chose to be stone and cold-blooded.

For seven hours at a stretch, the body of the IIT-Patna student, crammed into a non-air-conditioned ambulance, had to wait outside the Patna airport owing to the lackadaisical attitude of the office-holders of her institute, the hospital she was taken to and the district administration.

At 8am sharp, an ambulance from Kurji Hospital drove into the airport carrying Sweeya’s body in a so-called coffin made of cheap quality wood used in fruit caskets. The body was to be loaded on an IndiGo flight to Hyderabad scheduled to take off at 8.30am. Officials of the airport and the airline, after examining the way in which Sweeya’s body had been packed, refused to allow it on the flight.

With the IIT officials giving ambiguous statements, Patna police confirmed the same. “Yes, the body was to be flown by the 8.30am flight but it was refused as the way the body was packed was not proper,” Patna city superintendent of police (central) Shivdeep Lande told The Telegraph.

After this, it was a long wait indeed. Right from 8am till 12noon, the ambulance stood parked beside a snacks joint at the airport with two IIT students standing guard.

One of them identified himself as Subodh, a fifth-year student, said: “They have rejected this coffin, saying it has not been properly packed. The wait is on for a new coffin,” he said. Not a single institute official or police personnel could be seen. Around 12.30pm, institute registrar Subhash Pandey arrived and tried to dodge the media. “I don’t know by which flight the body would be sent. The tickets have been arranged by IIT but there are many management officials involved. Though I don’t know the exact time, I think it will be in the evening,” he said, before heading directly to the Jet Airways counter.

Ten minutes later, another ambulance arrived with a new coffin made of strong plywood. Some discussion followed and both the ambulances drove out of the airport. Sources said they went to an open field of a veterinary college around 1.5km away, where Sweeya’s body was transferred before the vehicles returned. Around 2.30pm, Sweeya’s father Nirmal Babu and her mother arrived. Sweeya’s body was ultimately flown to New Delhi by a Jet Airways flight at 2.50pm.