Visakhapatnam, Feb 9 (IANS): In a heart-wrenching incident, a man from Odisha carried his wife's dead body on his shoulder for more than four kilometers in Andhra Pradesh's Vizianagaram district before a couple of local police officers came to his rescue.

Samulu, a tribal from Surada village of Odisha's Koraput district, had no money to take the dead body of his wife Guru (30) to the village and the hapless man started walking with the body on his shoulder. He had a distance of 125 kilometers to cover.

Samulu had brought his ailing wife to Visakhapatnam for treatment. Unable to bear the expenses of her treatment, the tribal man was taking her back home in an auto-rickshaw. He wanted to reach Salur in the auto-rickshaw and from there reach his village in another vehicle.

However, the woman's condition deteriorated further on the way and she succumbed in the auto-rickshaw near Ramavaram Bridge in Vizianagaram district. The auto-rickshaw driver stopped the vehicle and asked the man to get down with the body. Despite requests by Samulu to at least drop him at Saluru, the auto-rickshaw driver did relent.

With no money in hand to arrange the transport, the man carried the dead body on the shoulder and left for his village.

He was walking along the busy national highway but no one stopped to help him. Finally a good Samaritan informed the police.

Circle Inspector Tirupati Rao and Sub-Inspector Kiran Kumar from Gantyada police station rushed to Ramavaram. The police officer spoke to him, collected all details, provided him with food and water and arranged an ambulance to carry the body to his village. The police officials also informed their counterparts in Odisha to render the necessary assistance.

The humanitarian gesture by the police officers was appreciated by Vizianagarm Superintendent of Police Deepika Patil and other top officials.