M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, Dec 28: The ex-gratia assistance to the next of kin of Covid patients who committed suicide during the institutional quarantine, home quarantine or in the Covid care centers is hanging in balance.
There is no clear cut guideline for such cases so far where Covid positive patients have committed suicide.
There have been incidents where patients have jumped from high rise hospital buildings or have hanged themselves inside the Covid care centre during the quarantine period.
There are two versions with regard to the suicide by the Covid positive patients. Attempt to suicide is a cognizable offence and if a person has committed suicide then his is a case of unnatural death.
Should a Covid positive patient who has committed suicide while undergoing institutional quarantine or undergoing treatment be discarded from the purview of the ex gratia relief worth 50,000 rupees is debated now since claims for Covid death ex-gratia are rising in the state.
Three Covid positive patients in Palamu committed suicide in their institutional quarantine during the first wave of the Coronavirus in 2020.
Garhwa recorded one such suicide in its sadar hospital in the second wave of the Coronavirus.
In-charge civil surgeon Garhwa Dr Kamlesh Kumar said that suicide by a Covid patient happens due to emotional instability and psycho somatic impulses triggered by being Covid positive and hence all such suicidal deaths of the Covid positive patients should be sympathetically bracketed as death by Covid.
He, however, said that there is an ascertaining committee headed by the additional collector to take a final call on Covid death.
SP Palamu Chandan Kumar Sinha gave his opinion saying attempt to commit suicide is an offence and abetment to suicide is more serious a crime. But suicides by Covid positive patients during the quarantine period or treatment phase are a different matter all together.
The SP alluded to section 115 of the Mental Healthcare Act 2017 which prohibits any punishment to a person who attempts to commit suicide under ‘severe mental stress’.
The Act further reads that such a person who so attempts to commit suicide under severe mental stress should not be ‘tried and punished’.
The SP said that any Covid positive patient who has committed suicide while undergoing institutional quarantine or home quarantine or undergoing treatment must have been driven by fear of the Covid, uncertainty of life, bleak future ahead and acute and severe stress. So it should be seen as death by Covid and the next of kin stands a right to claim for ex-gratia relief.
He added that the final call belongs to the state government as it is to take such cases into account for the ex gratia assistance.
