Kalyan death case: Kin allege deceased was attacked for coughing

Following the suspicious death of a 40-year-old resident of Bunderpada in Kalyan, his family has refused to take possession of the body, claiming that the man was

Following the suspicious death of a 40-year-old resident of Bunderpada in Kalyan, his family has refused to take possession of the body, claiming that the man was attacked by a mob which suspected him of being infected with the coronavirus. The body of the deceased has been sent to Sir JJ Hospital for a second post-mortem, and police said they will take action based on the report.

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The deceased, Ganesh Gupta, a tea seller, was found lying injured in a gutter on Wednesday morning. He was taken to a nearby hospital but died during treatment.

Anju Gupta, 30, wife of the deceased, refused to claim her husband’s body till the police take any action in his death. “On Wednesday around 6.30am, my husband left home to meet his boss in Ambernath to pick up some rations. Around 10.30am, some neighbours told me that he had fallen in a nullah,” she said, adding that some people helped pull him out and take him to the hospital.

“He kept repeating that some people beat him up and bashed a chair against his head. We took him to Rukmini Hospital and he was declared dead within 10 minutes,” she said.

The deceased’s relatives found Gupta’s bicycle lying by the side of the road along with the rations he had picked up.

“Some children and women told us that after my husband started coughing, some men suspected him of being a Covid-19 patient and attacked him. When he tried to run away he fell into the gutter,” Anju said.

Khadakpada police are investigating the case and told HT that they found CCTV footage of a man running alone. The footage does not show anyone attacking him.

Seema Patri, 42, Gupta’s neighbor, said that they had collected the names of the people responsible for the attack. “We gave the name of the people who beat him up to the police but they told us that we do not have any evidence that these people were responsible.”

Deputy commissioner of police, V Pansare said, “We have received the [first] post-mortem report which says the death was due to spinal injuries and that could have happened when Gupta fell into the nullah. We have filed an accidental death case and sent the body for another post-mortem to JJ Hospital.”