Kochi: Two contract workers at a municipal crematorium in Thrippunithura near here were arrested Monday for placing the half-burnt body of a man in a bathroom while they prepared pyre for another cremation.
The arrested -- V K Vasu and V L Mani -- allegedly took the half-burnt corpse of 57-year-old Sasidharan from the pyre and kept it in the bathroom for preparing pyre for cremating body of another man at the burial ground, police said.
Vasu and Mani have been arrested and booked under Section 297 of the IPC which deals with people who show any indignity to any human corpse. Their alleged plan was to cremate both bodies together once all the people had left, police said.
According to police, Sasidharan's body was found lying in the bathroom by mourners accompanying the second body, who then informed relatives of Sasidharan.
Sasidharan's shocked relatives and friends staged a protest at the burial ground demanding action against the two contract workers.
Officials, including Chairman of the Thrippunithura Municipality R Venugopal, along with police rushed to the spot and pacified the agitating relatives by promising action against the contract workers at the crematorium.
Later, the half-burnt body was cremated at the same burial ground in the presence of police and a large number of local people.
The relatives of the second dead man, however, took the body to another crematorium for the last rites.