A woman in Athani was forced to use a vegetable vendor’s cart to transport her husband’s dead body. He had succumbed to an illness on Friday.
Sadashiv Hiratti, 55, repaired shoes for a living in front of the district hospital. He was a habitual alcoholic and died of a long-time illness. He had not contracted COVID-19, officials said.
His wife, Shantavva, wanted to carry him to the burial ground in the outskirts of the town. But she could not find enough relatives or acquaintances who could carry the body on their shoulders. A vegetable vendor offered to carry the body on his cart.
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The pandemic scare and the lockdown in Athani kept most of her relatives away. Most did not help as they suspected him to have died of COVID-19. The few of her friends or relatives who wanted to come, could not travel due to the lockdown in Athani taluk, a police officer, who helped the family with the burial told