‘HE DID NOT DESERVE THIS TREATMENT’

Dr Pradeep Kumar, Arthroscopy Surgeon at New Hope Hospital

“After battling against the infection for more than two weeks, Dr Simon passed away at a private hospital in city on Saturday night. I went to the hospital along with some colleagues to receive the body around 8 pm. We discussed with the family about the last rites and decided to bury him at the burial ground in TP Chatram in Kilpauk. Around 9 pm, even before we could start from the hospital, a Corporation sanitary inspector informed us that a mob had gathered there to protest burying the body of a person who died of COVID. We don’t know how they came to know about it. When I went there to check, there were about 200 people protesting.

We then decided to bury the body at Velangadu cemetery. But there the situation was even worse. Those who gathered there had stones, sticks and lots in hand. Fearing for the safety of Dr Simon’s wife and son, we had to send them back. As we feared, they attacked the ambulance crew, Corporation workers and our colleagues, forcing us to run for our lives. By then, two of the ambulance crew were attacked with logs, leaving them with bleeding injuries on their heads. I sent them to Government Kilpauk Medical College hospital, and then contacted police. Later, protected by police officials, we went back to the cemetery around 11 pm to bury Dr Simon’s body.

The police chased away the people who were there before they could attack us again. We only had a short window of about an hour to complete the burial. The JCB had dug a pit of about 6 feet. As none of us knew how to operate the machine, we, along with the civic workers, dug the pit a little deeper using spades.

Then we lowered Dr Simon’s body into the burial pit, without his wife and son being present there to witness those last moments. I put the earth with my own hand to cover it. He did not deserve this treatment...”