A 33-year old truck helper from Punjab’s Pathankot who tested positive for COVID-19 was found hanging in a Corona waiting centre in North Tripura district, police said on Thursday.
Truck driver Tarsem Singh (48) along with his assistant Balbinder Singh (33) reached the Churaibari check gate, the entry point of Tripura from Pathankot, Tuesday night.
As the COVID-19 test is mandatory for those who are coming from outside the state, they went for a test at Churaibari Sales Tax Complex on the same night.
While Tarsem tested negative, Balbinder tested positive for COVID-19. Accordingly, he was taken to a designated room by the health workers before sending him to a quarantine centre at Panisagar.
When a medical team came to Churaibari Sales Tax Complex to take Balbinder to the Covid quarantine centre, they found his body hanging from a window. On being alerted, a police team of Churaibari police station rushed to the spot and recovered the body by maintaining Covid protocols.
"Prima facie it appears, Balbinder Singh, a COVID-19 positive patient committed suicide inside the room out of scare by using lays of tracksuit he wore. A case of Unnatural Death (UD) has been registered for the investigation to ascertain what could lead to the death of a Corona patient”, said Officer in Charge (OC) of Churaibari police station Bibash Ranjan Das, Thursday.
The OC further said the body has been taken to District Hospital at Dharmanagar for autopsy. "His family members, who were informed by us about the tragic incident on Wednesday, are expected to arrive here on Thursday. The body will be handed to the family after conducting postmortem", he added.
With PTI inputs.
