A private ambulance abandoned a dead patient's body midway and forced his relatives to carry it home in a make-shift cloth stretcher in Maharashtra's Palghar district, officials said on Friday.
Contrary to the ambulance driver's reported claim, the 1.8 km road to the hamlet where the man lived is motorable, the Palghar Zilla Parishad stated in a release.
Shailesh Magan Wagadada, who was suffering from respiratory distress and internal bleeding, was admitted to Vedanta Medical College Hospital on February 3 and died on the same evening, it said.
A hospital ambulance was used to transport the body home. But after reaching Chambharshet on Tilonda Road, the driver allegedly refused to go further, citing the condition of the non-tarred road leading to Ambepada, Wagadada's hamlet.
The relatives accompanying the body then placed it in a 'jholi' (a makeshift cloth stretcher) and trekked the remaining distance to their home.
As per the official release, the 1.8 km road from the Tilonda main road to Ambepada was completed in 2024-25 and vehicles like Jeeps and pick-up vans ply on it.
The driver may have been misled by someone claiming the vehicle could not enter the village, said Ravindra Shinde, Additional CEO of the Palghar Zilla Parishad.
Asphalting of the road has been proposed, he added.
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