The Bihar government on Tuesday said altogether 71 bodies have been fished out from the Ganges in Buxar district.
The bodies were found floating in the river, triggering suspicion that the abandoned corpses could be those of Covid-19 patients.
Doctors have confirmed through post-mortem that the deaths had taken place "four-five days" ago.
Bihar Water Resources Minister Sanjay Kumar, who is a key aide of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, on Tuesday asserted that the bodies had flown downstream from neighbouring Uttar Pradesh.
He said the chief minister was pained at both the tragedy as well as the "harm" to river Ganga.