HC orders shifting of COVID-19 warrior’s remains to Kilpauk cemetery

Judge adopts Ireland’s Local Government (Sanitary Services) Act of 1948 guidelines

Madras High Court on Wednesday directed the Greater Chennai Corporation to exhume the body of a neurosurgeon, who had died of COVID-19 in April 2020 from a cemetery at Velangadu near New Avadi Road here and re-bury it at a Christian cemetery in Kilpauk. The body could not be buried at Kilpauk immediately after death because some “anti-social elements” objected to it and indulged in violence last year. After being transported from one cemetery to another during night hours since there were objections by the locals who feared the virus, the body was finally buried at Velangadu cemetery used by people following a different faith. Pained at her husband’s mortal remains not having been laid to rest at the right cemetery, the surgeon’s wife had approached the court with a plea to exhume the remains and re-bury them at Kilpauk.