Guwahati, Apr 19 (IANS): Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has directed the Directorate of Health Services to rush to Majuli and probe the circumstances in which a youth had to carry the dead body of his relative on a bicycle from hospital to his village.

The instruction came immediately after television channels aired images of the youth carrying the dead body of his relative on a bicycle from a hospital at Garamur area in Majuli to Balijan village on the river island.

The youth told media that he took his ailing relative on his bicycle for admission in the hospital. However, the ailing person breathed his last after reaching the hospital.

He said that he was carrying the body to his home as there is no proper road and there are many bamboo bridges on way to his home, making it difficult to take the body in a van.

Majuli, the largest river island in Assam, is represented in the state assembly by Chief Minister Sonowal. The constituency is part of the Lakhimpur Lok Sabha constituency, once represented by the Chief Minister. Sonowal vacated the Lakhimpur constituency in 2016 after becoming state's Chief Minister.

"The patient was brought to the hospital on Tuesday morning by his relative. However, he died while we were preparing to put him on oxygen and start the treatment. We told the relative to wait so that we can organise an ambulance but the relative did not listen and tied the body to his cycle and took it back," said Superintendent of the hospital Manik Mili.