Officials filmed dumping bodies of COVID-19 victims into hole
WARNING – DISTRESSING CONTENT: Officials have apologised after a video surfaced on social media of workers in PPE kits throwing coronavirus victims wrapped in garbage bags into deep pits.
The video, filmed in India’s state of Karnataka, shows the bodies being dumped with officials confirming to the BBC the footage is authentic.
Video was shared on Twitter by political party Janata Dal Secular.
It shows crews carrying bodies in bags before tossing them down a pit and has caused widespread outrage.
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One man called the video “really shocking” while another accused those involved of showing “no respect” to the dead.
“This is utterly, utterly shameless,” another man tweeted.
The bodies were of eight people who died from COVID-19. India currently has more than 585,000 cases of the virus and 17,400 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
Senior district official SS Nakula offered an apology to the families via the BBC.
BEWARE!
By chance, if you or your family members die because of COVID-19, this is how the BJP Govt. in Karnataka throws away your body with many others into a single pit!
This is the 'well-planned COVID management' that the Govt. talks about everyday in the media! pic.twitter.com/jwIfhrcjN1— Janata Dal Secular (@JanataDal_S) June 30, 2020
“We are very hurt by this and we are very sorry,” he told the BBC.
“We condemn the way corpses have been treated.”
He added the bodies “should be handled with dignity”.
Karnataka’s chief minister Bookanakere Siddalingappa Yediyurappa told NDTV the way the bodies were handled was “inhuman and painful".
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