Rourkela: Relatives of a woman, who had left her husband and children to live with another man, allegedly refused to perform her last rights because her partner apparently belonged to a lower caste.
Her body lay at Sundargarh crematorium for hours before some volunteers came forward to help the woman’s son and daughter perform her last rites, late on Wednesday.
In 2018, Sabita Naik (44) left her husband, son and daughter in Shankara town to live with another man. Thereafter, Sabita’s first husband also left his children and went missing. Sabita’s children found shelter in their grandfather’s house.
Sabita’s second husband later started torturing her regularly.
Some days back, Sabita was beaten up by her partner. A critically injured Sabita was admitted to Sundargarh district headquarters hospital, while her partner fled. As her condition worsened, she was shifted to Vimsar, Burla, on Jan 18.
Learning about her mother’s condition, her daughter (21) and son (19), who work in Chennai and Sundargarh, respectively, reached Vimsar on Wednesday, but she had passed away by then.
The children brought her body to their house in Shankara, but none of the relatives came forward to cremate her. The children brought Sabita’s body to the cremation where it lay for hours before they were helped by four volunteers to perform the last rites.
“None of her relatives came forward to cremate her body as she had ‘married’ a man of lower caste. We four volunteers cremated the body of the deceased woman in the presence of her daughter, son, and the IIC of Town police station,” said Siddhant Kumar Panda, one of the volunteers.