Behrampur:
The body of a farmer was allegedly left unattended at a hospital here only to be nibbled by stray dogs as authorities have started to pass the buck over the incident.
The body of Ragunath Behera (62), who allegedly committed suicide after his crops failed, was left unattended outside the surgery ward of M K C G Medical College Hospital and stray dogs were biting off flesh from the corpse, official sources said today.
Behera had slashed his abdomen with a sharp weapon and later succumbed to his injuries at the hospital.
According to hospital authorities, they handed over the body to police for post-mortem and asked them to keep it in a morgue, but they did not follow the advice.
"We had asked them to keep the body in the morgue of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology department for post-mortem, but the police apparently did not follow the advice," hospital superintendent J P Behera.
However, a police officer passed the buck and said "as the post-mortem cannot take place during night, the relatives were asked to guard the body till the inquest."
Terming the incident as "unfortunate", senior BJP leader Ram Chandra Panda alleged this showed the failure of government in even protecting a body.
Raghunath is the eighth farmer to die during the last ten days in the district hit by recent unseasonal rain causing loss to standing paddy crops. The state government had announced Rs 900 crore special package for rain-hit peasants.
While three of them committed suicide, five others had died of shock after huge crop loss.
Family sources said Raghunath owned one acre, but leased another three acres after taking a loan of over Rs 50,000 from bank and other sources.
Sub-Collector of Chhatrapur Trilochan Majhi said an inquiry will be conducted into the incident.