Kallu Dhaikar carrying the corpse of her wife Sona Devi from SRN hospital to his house on a trolley-rickshaw

ALLAHABAD: Traffic on the busy Allahabad-Shankargrah highway was like any other day, but a man pulling his trolley-rickshaw with a body covered in an old bed-sheet attracted everyone’s attention. This was Kallu Dhaikar, a labourer from Dhaikarana locality of Shankargarh in UP's Allahabad district, carrying the corpse of his wife Sona Devi from SRN Hospital to his house, located around 45 kilometers away.

Sona, aged around 35 and mother of three kids, was suffering with a wound on her head and as claimed by Kallu, she was admitted to SRN Hospital of the city five days back. After she breathed her last in the hospital on Thursday, poor Kallu allegedly asked for an ambulance, but when the same was not provided to him, he had no other option but to carry his wife’s corpse on the trolley to his in-laws' place at Shankargrah .

According to Kallu, his wife was suffering with some wound on the left side of head and after treatment she was fine for a while, but recently she had high fever and the wound again started troubling her.

“Bukhar aata tha aur foda se pareshan thi. Swaroop Rani mein bharti karwaya tha magar bach nahi payi. Jab ambulance mangi to mili nahi, aaihi liye trolley se le jaana pad raha hai (she was troubled with fever and wound and after her death. I requested for ambulance, but when it was not provided, I had no other option but to take the corpse on trolley)," said Kallu.

Sona, his wife, has left behind two sons and a daughter. The family of five persons used to live in a makeshift hut near Minto Park of the city and Kallu used to collect garbage on his trolley and sell the same to an agent.

“I have asked my kids to reach the house on bus and decided to carry their mother on the trolley to her parents' place,” said Kallu.

However, contrary to the claims of Kallu, authorities of SRN Hospital declined that Sona Devi was even admitted to SRN.

“As of now, there is no record of any patient named Sona Devi or any death certificate issued by us, thus the very allegation, as claimed by this man regarding us not providing ambulance to carry the corpse, is baseless,” said superintendent in chief, SRN Hospital, Dr AK Srivastava.

