Coronavirus link in Uttarakhand suicide

A 56-year-old man said to have walked 80km to visit his daughter before being admitted to a quarantine centre in Rudrapur city, Uttarakhand, hanged himself on Monday, a day before his Covid-19 test result came in as negative, according to a relative.

Tole Shah was a resident of Puranpur in Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh.

Shah had gone to see his daughter, who lives in a village in Rudrapur in Udham Singh Nagar district, on March 28.

Shah’s family members told reporters he had walked 80km in two days during the nationwide lockdown and had fallen ill after reaching Rudrapur.

Barinderjit Singh, senior superintendent of police, Udham Singh Nagar district, said a magisterial inquiry had been ordered into the suicide.

“The doctors, other staff and the administration are taking good care of those in institutional quarantine. We need to probe thoroughly why the man hanged himself from a ceiling fan with a bed sheet,” the officer said. “The police have recovered Shah’s mobile phone, which may give some clue about his decision to take such an extreme step. We have also sealed his room.”

A relative of Shah, who asked not to be named, said the deceased man had cough and high fever and had been taking medicines advised by a physician.

“We came to know from fellow villagers that a panchayat representative had informed the local administration on March 29 that he defied the lockdown and walked from Uttar Pradesh to Uttarakhand and had symptoms of Covid-19. The police and health department officials took him to a temporary quarantine centre at the Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Institute the next day and his Covid-19 report was negative,” the relative said.

Staff at the quarantine centre remained tight-lipped, but a man who serves food to the patients told reporters: “One of our staff had served him (Shah) food on Sunday night and he was found dead the next morning.”

The employee said 38 people now remained in the quarantine centre after Shah’s death.

Last week, Two men in their 40s, Karmveer Singh, a farmer from Shamli, Uttar Pradesh, and Adesh Kumar, an employee in the sugarcane department in the heartland state, had hanged themselves in purported suicides related to the pandemic.