``We cannot hand over the body till our dues are cleared,'' says Mahendra Bhandari, director of the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute, a state government hospital, where the 21-year-old Bhudev Singh was admitted on November 18 for a cardiac disorder.

His father, Mithoo Singh, a resident of Bijnore district, is helpless: ``I have sold all my property at the village and deposited more than Rs 1.30 lakh so far and now I am bankrupt. I can't pay the remaining dues (of Rs 65,000) on my own.''

The father's nightmare began when his son didn't respond to treatment. Doctors had recommended a Double Valve Replacement surgery but before it could be done, Bhudev died. Just when the father began preparing for his son's last rites, he was told that the body couldn't be handed over unless all the bills were cleared. Balance: Rs 64,860.

Bankrupt after selling his property, the father requested the hospital authorities to waive the balance. But rules are rules, said the hospital.

``We will wait for few days and then lodge an FIR with the area police and register the body as unclaimed so that it can be disposed of. This may seem inhuman but we are strung by rules which govern our Institute,'' said an official.

Incidentally, the police get less than Rs 100 for disposing unclaimed bodies in Uttar Pradesh. And the father is afraid that his son's last rites won't be performed with dignity.

There is one ray of hope: Chief Minister Kalyan Singh's discretionary fund. Through his local BJP MLA B P Singh, the father has approached the chief minister. ``The CM has agreed to release the sum,'' claims the MLA. But the money hasn't come yet.

``Such cases happen in the Institute every two or three months,'' says a senior administrative official, ``and we lodge an FIR with the police when the bodies go unclaimed for non-clearance of bills.'' But this is not an unclaimed body, a father is waiting.