COVID-19 Lockdown: Surat men drive 36 hours to handover dead body to family

Two men from Surat travelled 2000 km to reach Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu to hand over the body of a 56-year-old man to his family members for the last rites. The man had died on April 12 following a brief illness.

Surat:Two men from Surat embarked on a 36-hour-long journey to handover the corpse of a migrant labourer to his family members in Tamil Nadu's Tirunelveli for the last rites.

The deceased identified as Subbraj who had been working at a restaurant in Surat for the last 15 years died on April 12 following a brief illness. However, due to poor financial condition and COVID-19 lockdown, his family members were unable to bring the dead body home.

As per reports, deceased's wife, Ranganayagi approached district collector Shilpa Prabhakar for aid. Responding to her request, the collector entrusted assistant collector Shivguru to find a means to transport the dead body to his native place. Following which, Sai Krupa ambulance service agreed to transport the corpse.

Ambulance driver Yuvaraj and his colleague covered a distance of 2000 km and drove through Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka to reach Tamil Nadu.

"The family members of Subburaj thanked us profusely for taking the rigorous 36-hour-journey to handover the body to them in time," said Yuvaraj, who has been in the profession for the last 12 years. "The family members offered to pay but we refused," Yuvaraj said.

"After reaching Surat, we will leave for Uttar Pradesh within two hours to take another patient to his native place," he added.

The owner of Sai Krupa Ambulance Service Babu Bhai said that he owns five ambulances and has been offering service to poor patients for the last few years.