Pune: A young man committed suicide by jumping from the third floor of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC)-run Khedekar Hospital (formerly Sahyadri hospital) at Bopodi for fear of becoming a coronavirus patient. The incident took place around 9.30 pm on Thursday. The 24-year-old deceased was a resident of Khadki.
Police Inspector (Crime) Shafiq Pathan of Khadki police station said that the youth was suffering from cold, cough and fever. He had gone to PMC run Dalvi Hospital in Shivajinagar on Thursday afternoon for a check-up. His swab sample was collected for COVID-19 test there. He was shifted to Khedekar Hospital in Bopodi due to sudden difficulty in breathing.
Police confirmed that his coronavirus test report had not yet arrived, but he feared that he had become a COVID-19 patient. Meanwhile, there was a power outage due to rain on Thursday night. He took advantage of the darkness and jumped from the hospital building and killed himself.
Police said that the deceased youth was unmarried and unemployed. He is survived by two brothers and a sister. One of his brothers worked with the Khadki ammunition factory.
Pune is among the worst-affected cities due to coronavirus in India. The country has seen over 82,000 positive cases out of which close to 26,000 are from the State of Maharashtra. Meanwhile, the global death toll due to the pandemic crossed the three lakh-mark on Thursday.
