Relatives of a retired police officer, who died of Covid-19 on Sunday in Gumla district of Jharkhand, had to run around for nearly 24 hours before being able to cremate his body, which started showing signs of decomposition, around noon on Monday.

Alexius Lakra, 65, a retired police sub-inspector, died on Sunday around 10am at the Sadar Hospital in Gumla.

A resident of Jori village in Bishunpur block under Bishunpur police station of Gumla district, Lakra had been admitted to the Sadar Hospital on Friday after testing positive for Covid-19 at the Bishunpur community health centre. The area is nearly 114km from state capital Ranchi.

Following Covid protocols, Lakra’s relatives waited at the site near Mundar Dam in Bishunpur, which has been identified by the block officials for the last rites. The ambulance driver came with the body of the deceased and kept it near the site and left.

While the relatives of the deceased, who are Christians, were planning for the burial, a group of villagers from Mundar opposed it claiming that the process would lead to spread of Covid-19 in their village.

Lakra’s relatives somehow managed to hire a tractor and took the body to the Bishunpur block office in the evening and kept the body on the vehicle through Sunday night.

On Monday morning, with the help of administrative officials the relatives took the body to Chera village in Bishunpur block, nearly 2km from Mundar Dam, for burial.

However, the villagers there also started opposing the burial and there were heated arguments between the relatives of the deceased and locals. The villagers were adamant that the body should be buried in Lakra’s native village and not in another place.

The relatives along with the officials then tried to perform the burial at two other villages — Gutuwa and Jehan Gutuwa — but again faced resistance from the local residents.

Finally, Bishunpur block development officer Chhanda Bhattacharya, Bishunpur circle officer Dhananjay Pathak and Bishunpur police station officer-in-charge Sadanand Singh along with a sizable police force went to Juri and managed to perform the burial at Lakra’s native place.

Bhattacharya blamed the hospital authorities for a lack of coordination which led to the delay in burying the body.

“We were not given information on time about the body of a Covid patient being brought for burial from the district health officials. Otherwise, we would have prepared for the burial well in advance taking the villagers into confidence,” said Bhattacharya.

Gumla civil surgeon Dr Vijay Bhengra, however, said that they had provided information to the block officials on time.

“We had followed all the protocols and provided the information to the block officials concerned before sending the body in an ambulance. It is their responsibility to ensure burial or cremation of the body,” said Bhengra.

Gumla deputy commissioner Shishir Kumar Sinha claimed it was not a big issue.

“It is not a big issue as it is being made out to be. Bishunpur is a rebel-hit area and we could not conduct the burial as it was late in the evening. There was some opposition from villagers due to a lack of awareness on the spread of Covid. However, they were pacified and the body was buried,” said Sinha.