Police arrange decent burial for abandoned octogenarian

In a moving incident, the police helped provide a decent burial for an 85-year-old woman, Kamalamma of Gantavur village of Palamaner mandal, who died on Tuesday after her family members abandoned her on the premises of a government hospital three days ago.

According to information, the elderly woman used to stay with her three daughters-in-law at the village by rotation after the death of her three sons.

After distributing the properties among the three children, the widow had fallen on tough times with nobody taking care of her.

She was reportedly brought to the Government Hospital at Palamaner three days ago by a family member and was dumped at a corner. Some outpatients who noticed the moaning woman brought it to the attention of the hospital staff, who, in turn, admitted to the emergency ward.

The efforts of the hospital staff to bring her family members to the ward failed owing to their alleged reluctance.

The woman died on Tuesday while undergoing treatment.

Once again, the efforts of the hospital staff to hand over the body to the family members went futile. This forced the hospital officials to approach the police.

Sub-Inspector (Palamaner) U. Nagaraju told The Hindu that the police personnel did their best to prompt the three daughters-in-law to share the burden of giving a decent burial to the elderly woman. “As there was no response from them, the matter was informed to one of her grandsons. Finally, he came and took possession of the body and informed us that he was sorry for the development,” the SI said.

Later, the police helped procuring an ambulance for shifting the body and providing their share of service for decent burial.