The decision of a government teacher to bury the body of his wife, who died of long-drawn ailment, inside his home as per community custom caused panic and protests in the congested ward number 14 of Dindori town in Madhya Pradesh.
This led the district administration to intervene and convince the man to do the last rites at a designated spot.
The body, however, remained buried inside the home of teacher Omkar Das Mogre for over 24 hours, before it was shifted and buried at a designated spot late on Wednesday evening, sources said.
Sub-divisional magistrate (SDM), Dindori, Balvir Raman, confirmed to THE WEEK that residents of ward number 14 had gathered and protested before the Kotwali police station and the district collector office on Tuesday night. “On Wednesday, tehsildar Govind Ram Salame reached the residence of Mogre along with police and though it took some time, Mogre got convinced for the burial of the body at a designated place,” the SDM said.
Mogre’s wife Rukmini had succumbed to sickle cell anaemia on Tuesday morning. There were reports that the teacher had buried his wife’s body inside the home as he could not bear separation from his wife. The couple did not have children. When the relatives and neighbours urged Mogre not to bury the body inside home, he remained insistent and also said that he did not differentiate between human beings and demons.
SDM Raman said that burying bodies of dead family members within the residential campus is a norm among the Panika – an OBC community, to which Mogre belongs.
“It is alright in rural areas where the residential campuses are quite big and there is space for such customs. The house in which the Mogre couple lived in ward 14 is very small and the neighbourhood is very congested with small houses belonging to weaker sections. In such a situation, the burial of a body inside a home caused a panic and people demanded that it be removed,” the SDM said.
