Villages in India carried the corpse of a farm laborer to a bank so they could withdraw his funeral money.
Yes, that happened.
The corpse of 55-year-old Mahesh Yadav was brought to a bank by his neighbors who were demanding money for his cremation.
According to reports, the 55-year-old laborer passed away in a village in Bihar after lenghty illness and had no family.
The body of the man was found by neighbors after some time.
The villagers searched his house for valuables to pay for his funeral, but they did not find anything.
After looking at his bank passbook, it had around Rs. 155,000.
To get money for his cremation, the authorities took the passbook of Yadav and him, yes his dead body, to the bank.
The villagers were saying that they will not leave until they release his funds.
Amrendar Kumar, a local police officer that is handling the case, released a statement about the incident.
The statement reads:
Villagers demanded the bank gave them money from his account for the cremation or else they would not cremate him. It put pressure on the bank, which finally released some money following the intervention of the local police station.
Sanjeev Kumar, the manager of the Canara Bank, said that it is the first case of such incident.
Kumar added:
It was the first such case. After over an hour, I gave them money ($135) and they finally left the bank with his body for the cremation ground.
Shakuntla Devi and Yadav, the neighbors of the man, said that he did not own any land and was not getting any support from the government.
He was reportedly sick for a couple of months and the villagers were the one that were giving him food and other basic necessities.