Family members of an Income Tax (I-T) department employee, who had died of Covid-19 in April last year, kept his body at their house in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur town, about 90 km from the state capital, because they believed he was in a coma.
The matter came to light on Friday when a team from the state health department reached their house. The I-T department informed them that the employee, identified as Vimlesh Kumar, had not been attending office for the past one and half years, and asked them to ascertain his whereabouts.
A team was then formed by the chief medical officer to look into the matter.
According to sources, the family members continued to insist that Kumar was alive and in a coma, when the medical team reached their home and told them that he had been dead for a long time.
Reports revealed that Kumar died of Covid-19 on April 21 last year. The doctors had even issued a death certificate. The family members, however, did not cremate the body saying that he was alive.
Vimlesh’s wife sprinkled ‘Gangajal’ (sacred water from the Ganga) on Kumar’s body every morning, hoping it would help him come out of the "coma", sources said.
According to the neighbours, the family told them that Kumar was in a coma. “The family members were often seen taking oxygen cylinders home,” said one of the neighbours.
The police said that the body was highly decomposed. “Vimlesh’s wife appears to be mentally unstable… we are investigating the matter,” said a police official in Kanpur.
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