Odisha: Tribal man who carried wife's dead body on foot says he never really asked for help

Dana Majhi, the tribal man from Odisha's Bhawanipatna who made headlines for carrying the dead body of his wife on his shoulders for over 10 kms, has now said that he never asked for help.

Majhi told the Times of India that since there was no attendant in the female ward when his wife passed away, he left the hospital with his wife's dead body without informing anyone.

Adding that he could not think clearly after the death of his wife, Majhi said he decided to refrain from asking for help and chose to carry the body from Bhawanipatna to his native village in Melghara.

"The doctor treated my wife thrice and his last visit was at 10 in the night. She died around 2am. When I felt that she was no more I took her body without informing any of the patients who were there in the female ward," Majhi told the daily.

He also said that he had decided to ask for help after reaching Sagada which is approximately 10 kms away from the hospital.

On 24 August, Odisha's Bhawanipatna was witness to the heartbreaking sight of Dana Majhi, a tribal man walking with the dead body of his wife on his shoulders, with his 12-year-old daughter by his side for a distance of 10 kms after hospital authorities allegedly refused him a mortuary van.

After walking nearly 10 km, he met the crew of a local television channel. "I told the hospital authorities that I am a poor man and cannot afford a vehicle. They said they could not offer any help," Majhi told them.

The incident sparked a massive controversy with many questioning the Odisha scheme under which vehicles to carry the dead are meant to be deployed at 37 government hospitals.

--With Agency inputs