Bodies found floating in river Ganga

A petition was filed in the Supreme Court on Thursday seeking the constitution of a special investigation team headed by a sitting or retired Supreme Court judge to oversee the investigation into the deaths of several people whose bodies were recently found floating in the Ganges River in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

The petition has requested instructions from the Center, the authorities of the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to carry out an autopsy of the bodies found floating in the Ganges River to determine the cause of death.

The statement, presented by advocates Pradeep Kumar Yadav and Vishal Thakre, has stated that the recovery of these decomposed corpses poses a serious problem, as the river acts as a source of water for many areas and if the bodies were infected by COVID-19. , then it could spread to the villages of both states.

“The act of the states is inhuman, as the states have not provided facilities for the decent burial/cremation of the corpses and neither have they been able to control that the holy river the Ganges should not have been polluted by such an inhuman and indecent act either of the individual or of the State itself ”, alleges the motive.

He claimed that the governments of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are fleeing responsibility and instead of finding out how these corpses were dumped into the river, a “blame game” has started between them and therefore there is a need for a constitution of SIT led by a sitting or retired superior court judge to oversee the death investigation.

The statement alleged that some 100 bodies were found floating in the Ganges River, of which 71 were extracted in the Buxar district of Bihar, while those bodies were also found in the Ghazipur district of Uttar Pradesh.

The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) has sent notices to the Union Jal Shakti Ministry, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, after receiving complaints about several bodies found floating in the Ganges river in the two states.

“The (NHRC) has issued notices to the chief secretaries of the states and the secretary of the Ministry of the Union of Jal Shakti, asking today to be informed of the measures taken within four weeks,” said its statement.