16-05-2021 The Asian Independent

www.theasianindependent.co.uk
NEWS
16-05-2021 to 31-05-2021
15
Dark face of Covid; Covid warriors land
to often recover decomposed bodies
Bengaluru : With the exponential
rise in Covid-19 cases during the second
wave of the Covid-19pandemic,
Karnataka is also witnessing an
increase in the number of deaths. But
what is worrisome is dead bodies are
found in decomposed condition due to
its metropolitan culture, where interaction
with neighbours is near zero.
This culture has plunged to another
abyss, after the emergence of the
Covid pandemic, even our own ‘near
and dear ones' have either become
pariahs or treat us one like pariah,
after either of us realise that some of
us are taken ill.
Covid warrior and software engineer
with the TCS, Sathyanarana Roy
aka Ruchi Roy's friend of Odisha's
local channel reporter living in
Bengaluru received a call from his
home state Odisha on May 12 at
around 4 p.m. Distressed parents of
their only 25-year-old son, Santhosh
Jena was not picking up their call who
had fallen sick three days ago before
they heard him last on May 7 at 5 p.m.
According to Roy, after receiving
the call along with his friend working
with media, Gobind Barik reached
Koodlugate in Parappana Agrahara
police limits. What they saw was this
young man sitting on chair under the
ceiling fan had died three or four days
ago and his body had already started
decomposing that too with his limbs
started dislocating.
Roy said that the parents had tried
their best to reach out their son though
few relatives and fellow villagers who
work in Bengaluru to know about
New Delhi : The Delhi government
has extended lockdown
period for one more
week, Chief Minister Arvind
Kejriwal said on Sunday.
"We have been witnessing
good recovery following the
lockdown. Coronavirus cases
have been on a decline. We
don't want to lose the gain that
we have made in the last few
days. We are extending the
lockdown for one more week.
Instead of tomorrow, lockdown
is extended till next Monday, 5
Jena's wellbeing, but none had come
to their rescue and only then they had
Lockdown extended till
May 24 in Delhi: Kejriwal
a.m. in Delhi," he said.
On Saturday, Delhi recorded
6,430 cases with 11 per cent
positivity rate. The recovery
was 11,591 but the daily death
number was still very high at
337.
In the last few days, Delhi
has witnessed some relief as
daily positive cases and daily
Covid positivity too, however,
the city has been reporting
over 300 deaths every day
since May 4 (except two days
when less than 300 were
taken help of their village head, who
though some of his political contacts
reported). The highest daily
deaths in one day were reported
on May 3, when a total of
448 Covid patients had died in
the city.
Delhi reported 6,430 new
coronavirus cases in the last 24
hours, the lowest since April 7
and the daily Covid positivity
rate reduced to 11.32 per cent.
For the last few days, Delhi has
witnessed a sharp decline in
daily positive cases, positivity
rate and number of patients in
home isolation etc.
New Delhi : The
National Investigation
Agency (NIA) on Sunday
conducted searched at
four locations in Tamil
Nadu in connection with
an incriminating
Facebook post by accused
Mohammed Iqbal, an
extremist advocating ideology
of ISIS and Hizb-
Ut-Tahrir, a fundamentalist
organisation.
The anti-terror agency
conducted searches in
Madurai district of Tamil
Nadu in connection with
the case which was originally
registered at
Thideer police station in
the same region relating to
uploading of some incriminating
posts on Facebook.
The searches were conducted
at Kazimar Street, K. Pudur,
Pethaniyapuram and
Mehaboob Palayam in
Madurai.
During the search, sixteen
digital devices including laptop,
hard disks, mobile phones,
memory cards, SIMs, Pen drive
and many incriminating books
and pamphlets and documents
have been recovered.
NIA had re-registered the
case on April 15 this year and
taken over the investigation
which so far has revealed that
the posts on the Facebook page
"Thoonga Vizhigal Rendu is in
Kazimar Street" was uploaded
by accused Mohammed Iqbal
for denigrating a particular
community. "The posts were
came to know about Gobind Barik
working in Bengaluru.
Roy said that Jena's parents were
not even aware about his whereabouts
like where he stays or where he
worked in Bengaluru and none could
blame them as they are from a very
remote village of Bhadrak district in
Odisha, which is around 1,980 km
from this tech-hub.
"They were dependent on Jena for
their survival in their village. Even to
reach us they had taken help from their
village head's (Sarpanch) help, who
somehow knew that a reporter
(Gobind Barik) of local channel of
Odisha works here," Roy told IANS.
Roy said that the irony of this
episode is that the deceased house
owner who stays nearby and few
neighbours who lived here were not
even aware that Jena was dead and the
owner even insisted that Jena was not
in the house and left his bike here and
perhaps left Bengaluru due to imposition
of partial lockdown on April 27.
"Somehow, we both (Gobind and
me) sensed that something was a miss.
Then we sought his permission to see
his room, which was on the third floor
of the building. When we reached his
room, his room was locked from
inside, and then we saw from the window,
realised that he was no more,"
the Covid warrior explained.
Then Roy approached Parappana
Agarahara police, who immediately
came with him and broke open the
door and recovered the dead.
"The police informed the Bruhat
Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike authorities
who came with an ambulance
conducted Covid test on the deceased
and it was found that the deceased was
Covid positive. The BBMP officials
did take good care as the first ambulance
which they had dispatched did
not have experienced staff to wrap the
decomposed body. So, the BBMP
rushed another team of experts who
are specialised in handling decomposed
bodies like the Jena's, whose
limbs had started falling apart," Roy
explained.
When Roy broke the story of Jena's
death through Sarpanch's phone, the
parents had fainted and were admitted
to hospital and they were wailing
inconsolably as they felt that they
could not even take part in the last
rites of their only son and lone earning
member of their family.
Roy poignantly reminded that
nowadays, many people are less interested
in maintaining any friendly relation
with their neighbours.
"The face to face interaction and
the sense of brotherhood have been
diminishing since the emergence of
sophisticated life and hi-tech culture.
That is where we are finding such
dead bodies often in cities like
Bengaluru. For this city is not to be
blamed, we, the people must take
responsibility for reaching out to our
neighbours and keeping in touch with
them. Cities like Bengaluru provide us
an ample opportunity for employment,
but after coming to this city, we people
should also need to contribute by
keeping our neighbourhood vibrant,"
he signed off.
Facebook post case: NIA raids
4 places in Tamil Nadu
designed to incite communal
disharmony amongst different
religious groups, in a manner
prejudicial to the maintenance
of public order," said the NIA.
Iqbal alias Senthil Kumar, a
resident of Kazimar area in
Madurai was arrested on
December 2 last year and is
presently under judicial custody.
"Further investigation in the
case continues."