Crematorium clothes sold as new in markets:Sarees, other items up for sale; network runs up to Ahmedabad

If new clothes don’t smell of ghee and perfume, no one can recognise that they are from the crematorium. People wear them for worship and weddings. These are also the clothes given in transactions. These are the words of Dilip Mane, an agent at a crematorium in Indore. He is part of an organised gang that operates from crematoriums to Ahmedabad. The gang collects clothes, sarees, shawls, pants-shirts, and towels from bodies brought for cremation, washes and presses them, and then sells them in the market as new. This black trade, worth several lakhs every month, runs so smoothly that there are no complaints and no one gets caught. A Bhaskar reporter, posing as a Rajasthan businessman, contacted agents at six crematoriums in Indore to understand the network and struck a deal to buy clothes from the dead. The team then reached the trader who directly supplies these clothes from crematoriums to Ahmedabad. Read how this business operates from the crematorium to the market How the whole game works This whole game starts from the cremation ground. Before the pyre is lit, clothes taken off the bodies or thrown in the cremation ground are collected by agents and employees there. After this, the clothes reach small brokers, then big traders, and finally big centres like Ahmedabad in Gujarat. There, the clothes are ‘repaired’, polished, and sent to the market in attractive packaging. To expose this game, Bhaskar first contacted an agent at Muktidham, where the agents themselves revealed the layers of this business. Khema Pehalwan sent to another agent The investigation began at Panchkuiya Muktidham. Here, Khema Pehalwan stated that the goods had been sold, but the next deal could be with Dilip Mane of Rambagh. Dilip Mane took the reporter to Malwa Mill Muktidham, where his mother-in-law, Vimla Bai, works as an agent. Vimla said – Sarees priced at 70-80 rupees There was a pile of sarees and clothes in the warehouse of Malwa Mill Muktidham. Vimla Bai said, Some people came from Rajwada, Indore. They said – we will wash, press, and pack them in plastic. Just don’t sell them to any Muslim. Here, shawls are being sold for 20-40 rupees, kurta-pyjamas for 45 rupees, and sarees for 70-80 rupees. Agent Dilip laughed and said, Until the smell of ghee and the scent of the dead doesn’t come, how will anyone know? Everyone is an artist, everyone washes them. Three warehouses of Banganga Muktidham Agents of Sayaji Muktidham opened bundles, showed sarees and claimed that these are ‘better quality goods’, which no one will recognise when worn. Meanwhile, Sanjay Yadav of Banganga Muktidham has built three warehouses. One warehouse is in Muktidham’s facility house, while the other is in a house 2 km away. Goods worth millions are dumped here. ‘Whatever goods there are, we will buy them all’ Investigation revealed that Monu Bhaijaan is a major buyer for almost all Muktidhams in the city. He has instructed all agents that goods should only be given to him. When the Bhaskar reporter approached Monu Bhaijaan as a seller, he called him to Chandan Nagar and introduced him to the big trader Salman. Monu said, ‘We sell some goods ourselves by hawking and give the rest to Salman Bhai. From here, the entire consignment goes to Ahmedabad by truck.’ Trader Salman said, ‘You just bring a vehicle full, whatever the goods, I will buy them. From here, the goods go to Gujarat.’ ‘Clothes of the dead’ being worn in auspicious ceremonies Mahamandaleshwar said – Tampering with faith Swami Anilanand Maharaj, Executive President of Akhil Bharatiya Sant Samiti and Mahamandaleshwar, said, Reusing clothes of the dead is considered inauspicious in Hinduism. Those who unknowingly wear such clothes may experience inauspicious results. Stating scientific reasons, he said that in Hinduism, a dead body is not kept in the house for even four hours. After the body is taken for the last rites, the house is purified by sprinkling Ganga water and cow urine. It is considered necessary to consign the clothes of the deceased to fire.