Balasore, Oct. 15: A victim of AIDS had to be cremated at his home at a village in Balasore district after neighbours stopped his family members from cremating the body at the local cremation ground.

A group of villagers voiced their disapproval against the 30-year-old victim being cremated there despite the presence of a local revenue official and the local police.

Balasore district collector Pramod Das said the local tehsildar had been asked to conduct a probe.

"If the deceased had been discriminated against because he was affected by AIDS, appropriate action will be taken against the persons found guilty," he said.

The deceased, who worked for a private company in Mumbai and had been living outside the state for nearly 10 years, died at his home yesterday after a spell of treatment at a private hospital in Cuttack. The family members had taken the body to the village cremation ground for the funeral.

The deceased's mother said: "My son died in the morning. We could not cremate him at the village cremation ground because a group of villagers objected to it and threatened us with dire consequences if we tried to go ahead. They were armed with swords and daggers and asked us to leave the place. We were left with no choice but to perform the last rites at our house yard."

After encountering opposition from the villagers, the family had approached the local administration.

The assistant revenue inspector of the area and officials of the local police outpost went to the spot and tried to reason with the protesters but they refused to relent.

Assistant revenue inspector Mahendra Das, who was present on the spot, said: "The villagers said the ground was no longer being used for cremation.

Instead, the people were using a site near the riverbank, about 100 metres away. The protesters wanted the bereaved family members to take the body there."

"But, the family members had said that since their ancestors had been cremated on the same ground, they wanted to perform the cremation right there. When they failed to convince the villagers, they cremated the body at the family house yard," he said.

A resident of the village said: "The patch was earlier used for cremation. But, residential houses have come up around the site and people living in the area had objected to the place being used as a cremation ground."

Local tehsildar Priyabrata Padhi said: "It is a social problem and the issue should have been sorted out at the village level."

Family sources said the deceased had been infected with the HIV virus about two years ago at a private clinic.

His health had deteriorated about two months ago and he returned to his native village. He received treatment at SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack and private hospitals in the state.

The deceased is survived by his 26-year-old wife, two daughters and his 60-year-old mother.

His 18-month-old son had died of AIDS about six months ago. His wife and eight-year-old second daughter are suffering from the same disease.

Puri tension

Tension gripped Chari Chhak in Krushnachandrapur block of Puri district today with people blocking a road in the wake of an ambulance driver allegedly refusing to carry the body of a boy last night.

Rudra Nayak, 4, of Tubuka village under Krushnachandrapur block died last night on the way to Chhatrapur Hospital in an ambulance.

The boy's father requested the ambulance driver to take the body back to the village in the same vehicle but the driver refused to do so. He abandoned the bereaved family midway and left, said sources.

The father then walked back around 20km with the body.