While his family was expecting him at home to celebrate the Gowri-Ganesha festival with them, the cop was performing the last rites of the 5-year-old girl.
On Friday night, a five-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted died at St John’s hospital in Bengaluru. After her death, the police shifted her body to get the post-mortem done, and then brought it back to the hospital. A bill of ₹1.7 lakh was given to the child’s mother, and only on clearing it could her body be released from the hospital. The mother, however, was not in a state to pay.
This is when Talagattapura police inspector, Ramappa Gutther, came to her aid. With his help, a private firm agreed to pay the bill, helping the mother release the girl’s body.
Sadly, she was not even able to take her daughter’s body to the crematorium either and asked the police to help.
Moved by this, Ramappa along with other staff members transported the body from the hospital to Banashankari crematorium in a hearse van – all of which they paid for by pooling their own money.
They also sought help from an NGO that agreed to pay ₹10,000 to the woman.
But there was another hurdle – nobody in her family who could perform the last rites. The woman was inconsolable. Rammappa then offered to conduct the last rites.
“The father of the child died four months ago. When the crematorium staff asked the woman to get a male family member to perform final rites, she broke down. Ramappa, who was at the spot, consoled her and performed the final rites,” a police officer told the New Indian Express.
All this while, Ramappa’s family was expecting him at home to celebrate the Gowri-Ganesha festival. But this officer was helping a distraught mother, devastated by grief.
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