Alleged social isolation has claimed the life of a 36-year-old man in Agartala after he was cured of COVID-19 infection recently.
Police have registered a case of unnatural death but could not find a way to start investigation.
According to reports, family members found Debashis Datta (36), an insurance agent, hanging on July 2 at his house in Chandrapur.
Police handed over the body to the family after postmortem.
The parents and wife of the deceased held the neighbours responsible for his death and demanded justice.
Debashis was stuck in New Delhi for two and half months due to lockdown and had returned to Agartala on June 3. He was found COVID-19 positive and was sent to treatment centre.
After a three-week treatment he had been released from the hospital on June 26 following two subsequent negative tests.
His family alleged that neighbours, including the shopkeepers around the locality, had been openly isolating Debashis after he returned home. Even in some cases, he was treated badly in the local shops, which have allegedly impact on his psychology.
The people living around stopped entering the house, as Debashis had suffered from COVID-19, the family members claimed.
“The neighbours started treating him like a ‘sinner’. We had to stop coming out from the gate and the entire family became isolated because of baseless apprehension,” the family members alleged.
“The state government should have taken strong action against the people involved in such activities. While in other places, the cured COVID-19 patients are welcomed by the society, here in our case it was completely opposite,” said Subhashis Datta, younger brother of the deceased.
He added that because of such behaviour, Debashis had become depressed and he chose to end his life.
“Even after hearing the sad incident, hardly people visited us… We want exemplary action against the people who compelled him to hang,” he said.
