BARIPADA: Driven by the fear of having contracted coronavirus, a migrant labourer allegedly hanged himself from a tree outside a temporary COVID care centre in Mayurbhanj on Friday. The man Surendra Behera, a resident of Raikoma village under Baisingha police limits, had developed sore throat and cough and his swab sample had been sent for tests. The report is awaited.
He had returned from Andhra Pradesh on May 12 and quarantined at Damborudahar high school within Anla panchayat. His wife, who had gone to Chennai along with other villagers before the lockdown, had also returned to the village on the day and put up at the same quarantine centre.While his wife and other villagers were lodged in a hall, Surendra was kept in a separate room as he suffered from Covid-like symptoms.
Surendra slept late on Thursday night and on Friday morning, the centre staff found him missing from his room. Sarpanch Krushna Chandra Hembram was informed and after arriving at the centre with breakfast for the inmates, he along with two teachers started searching for him.Some locals found a man hanging from a tree outside the centre and informed the Sarpanch, who identified the body.
Hembram informed that Surendra was in a depression since he arrived at the centre in apprehension of being infected.Mayurbhanj SP Parmar Smit Parshottamdas said it is not clear yet if the inmate ended his life out of COVID fear or over a family dispute. The postmortem report is also awaited, he said.