New Delhi, Jun 24 (IANS): Amid the corona pandemic in the country, reports of indifferent treatment meted out to corona victims after death have come to light.

Family members of the corona victims had left them. At such a time, a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) activist Charanjeev Malhotra came to the fore.

Charanjeev and other VHP workers began performing the last rites of unclaimed bodies of the corona infection victims.

Charanjeev told IANS that he had cremated 23 bodies by Vedic rituals. On Wednesday he left for Haridwar to immerse the ashes of five such people in the Ganga. People's apathy against their own was what inspired him to perform this work.

Charanjeev said the corona victims were being discriminated against due to fear of catching the infection. He visited the homes of such corona victims, distributed medicines, including Ayurvedic decoctions. The situation, he added, is getting worse because people fear cremating the corona victims.

Family members desist from attending the funeral of their kin or people are unable to perform the last rites though they desire to do so.

Charanjeev said that the VHP took up the task of taking such dead bodies to the cremation ground. He started cremating the corona victims after seeking permission of the family concerned. Similarly he performed the last rites of the unclaimed bodies, too.

During the funerals, Charanjeev was equipped with protective equipment such as PPE kits, gloves, masks, sanitizers, taking necessary precautions.

He said if corona patients needed medicines and ration, he provided it to them.

Charanjeev also cleaned and sanitised the crematoriums regularly. People threw PPE kits, gloves, masks, etc at the cremation ground. VHP activists collected these items and burnt them.