A 70-year-old man who buried the dead without charging any fees was paid back in 'kind' at his own funeral.

Thousands of people turned up on Thursday to pay their last respects at Saeed Ahmad's funeral in Kaira town in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh.

Even though he was not a gravedigger by profession, Ahmed dug more than 500 graves for poor people.

Ahmad used to say he could not bear the thought of seeing bodies being denied a final resting place, people said.