Unnao dead bodies row

Pariyar Ghat

Location of the discovery in India

Pariyar Ghat area

Location of the discovery within Uttar Pradesh

On 14 January 2015, more than one hundred unidentified dead bodies were found floating in the River Ganges in Unnao district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.^[1] The dead bodies are believed to be of mostly unmarried girls and children. They were later buried at the riverbank.^[2]

Incident

The bodies, which were mostly of children and unmarried girls, were first noticed on 14 January 2015 by some villagers at Parihar Ghat in Unnoa district when crows and dogs were feeding on them. The area was cordoned off by officials and 104 dead bodies were retrieved from the river. Samples were taken for forensic DNA profiling, as, according to officials, postmortem was not possible. Without going for cremation the dead bodies were buried at the riverbank. On the same day, six more dead bodies were found floating in the river and retrieved from the neighbouring district of Jhansi.^[2]

One of the explanations given by the officials was that the river had changed its course due to the construction of a new barrage, the water level became lower and the bodies surfaced. A magisterial enquiry was ordered by the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Akhilesh Yadav to prove the facts of the incident.^[2] The chairperson of Bahujan Samaj Party, Mayawati, demanded CBI enquiry into the incident and said that it "has infused fear among people".^[3] Azam Khan, a cabinet minister in Uttar Pradesh government, has accused Sakshi Maharaj of being responsible for the incident.

I have come to know that Sakshi Maharaj brought a truck loaded with bodies to the spot and unloaded it into the river to defame the state government.^[4]

Location

The dead bodies were found floating in a canal at Parihar Ghat, which connects to the Ganges and is 60 km southwest from Lucknow, the state capital of Uttar Pradesh and 30 km in northeast from another major city, Kanpur.^[5]

River

The Ganges River is regarded as holy river by Hindus and many cremation ghats are on its banks. As per the police officials of Unnao,

the dead bodies were of people who were dumped in the river or buried on the banks after their families could not afford a proper cremation.

The river, which originates from the Gangotri glacier in the Himalaya, is regarded as "Mother Ganges" and is badly polluted by sewage, industrial waste and farm pesticides. Varanasi, Rishikesh, Haridwar and Allahabad are the major holy towns on its banks.^[6]

References