COVID-positive journalist, who feared murder, jumps to death at AIIMS trauma centre

Tarun Sisodiya, a journalist associated with a Hindi daily, committed suicide by jumping from the fourth floor of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi on July 6.

The health journalist was being treated for COVID-19 at AIIMS and had complained about the lack of proper treatment facilities at the hospital. Shortly after highlighting the shortcomings of AIIMS, he had posted in a WhatsApp group of journalists that he might get murdered. Sisodia had also tweeted last month pointing to discrepancies in Delhi’s COVID-19 toll.

दिल्ली सरकार कह रही है कि अब तक 982 मौत कोरोना से हुई हैं, जबकि 1500 से ज्यादा डेडबॉडी का अंतिम संस्कार श्मशान और कब्रिस्तानों में हो चुका है। अभी भी सरकार मौत पर झूठ ही बोल रही है। @KapilMishra_IND#COVID__19 pic.twitter.com/mmWBuTZdNL

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— तरुण सिसोदिया (@tarunsisodiaN18) June 10, 2020

Screenshots of his WhatsApp messages have been shared by his acquaintances and fellow scribes on social media platforms, where he has written: “Murder ho sakta hai”.

Is it a suicide case or brutal murder of tarun sisodiya, a young promising journo, who was admitted in AIIMS, delhi, due to covid19 infection ..? Immediate inquiry needed. @PMOIndia @narendramodi @drharshvardhan @AmitShah @ArvindKejriwal @ashokism @CPDelhi @Mukesh_k pic.twitter.com/4sBc3tLiNH

— Suresh Upadhyay (@SureshNBT) July 6, 2020

The statement released by AIIMS says the 37-year-old journalist was being treated for novel coronavirus and was showing significant improvement. The hospital authorities had even planned to shift him to the general ward from ICU. However, around 1.55 pm on July 6, he reportedly ran out of TC-1, where he was admitted, broke a windowpane and jumped. AIIMS staff had pursued him and tried to stop him but could not save him. Sisodiya sustained serious injuries and succumbed to them at 3.35 pm despite efforts to resuscitate him.

The AIIMS statement also mentions: “He (the deceased journalist) earlier had surgery for frontal lobe meningioma (a type of brain tumour) at GB Pant Hospital, New Delhi, in March 2020. While he was in JPNATC for treatment of COVID-19, he was having bouts of disorientation for which he was seen by Neurologist and Psychiatrist and put on medication.”

The AIIMS statement further claims that the hospital authorities had regularly counselled the family members of the journalist. However, a fellow journalist acquainted to him has said his family has claimed that AIIMS never contacted them. Rather, they would reach out to his colleagues and other health journalists to get updates on his well-being.