The family of an Income Tax department employee who died in Kanpur last year kept his body at home for almost 18 months believing he was in a coma.
The man's wife sprinkled "gangajal: on his highly decomposed body every morning, hoping that it would help him come out of the coma, officials said.
In a statement, the Kanpur police said the death certificate of the man, Vimlesh Dixit, issued by a private hospital, stated that he died due to sudden cardiac respiratory syndrome on April 22, 2021.
But his family was reluctant to perform his last rites because they believed he was in a coma, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Alok Ranjan said.
"I was informed by Kanpur's Income Tax officials, who requested that the matter be investigated as the family pension files hadn't moved an inch," he said. "
When a team of health officials, along with policemen and a magistrate, reached Dixit's house in the Rawatpur area on Friday, his family members insisted that he was in a coma, Ranjan said.
Dixit's family had also told their neighbours that he was in a coma. The neighbours told police the man’s family members were often seen taking oxygen cylinders home.
After much persuasion, they allowed the health team to take the body to Lala Lajpat Rai Hospital, where medical tests declared him dead, he said.
The CMO said a three-member team has been constituted to look into the matter thoroughly and asked to submit its findings at the earliest.
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