Lucknow, Jul 28 (IANS): A Dalit woman's body was unceremoniously removed from the funeral pyre minutes before she was to be cremated by upper caste men in Agra a few days back. The incident has now snowballed into a major controversy after a video of the act went viral on social media.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati on Tuesday hit out at the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh and demanded a high-level inquiry into the incident.

In a tweet, Mayawati said, "In UP near Agra, the body of a Dalit woman was removed from the cremation ground by people of upper castes having casteist mentality because the cremation ghat belonged to upper castes. This is the most shameful and most condemnable."

In another tweet, she said, "In this casteist and most disgusting incident, a high-level inquiry should be conducted by the UP government and the culprits should be given harshest punishment so that such incidents are not repeated in the future. This is the demand of the BSP."

The body of the 26-year old woman was removed from the funeral pyre in Agra about a week ago by the Thakur community who said this cremation ground is not meant for people from the Dalit community.

Mayawati also raised the issue of the death of a Dalit doctor in Delhi who died due to coronavirus.

The BSP chief in her tweet said, "The Delhi government should shun its casteist mentality and extend all help to his (doctor) family who had taken loan for his education," she said.