A man, who had returned from Mumbai to his native place in Karnataka on Wednesday and was sent to quarantine, reportedly committed suicide. The police said that the man hanged himself on Thursday morning.
He was working at a hotel in Mumbai and had managed to come back to his native place Moodabidri after inter-state travel was allowed, the police said.
However, since he had come from a different state, the 51-year-old was put into mandatory institutional quarantine functioning at a school. The police said that he was stressed about his employment prospects due to the Covid-19 lockdown and that appears to be the reason why he killed himself.
The man is survived by three daughters and a wife. His body has been shifted to the district government hospital for post-mortem and police have launched an investigation.
This is the second instance of a person under quarantine killing themselves. In a similar incident on April 27, a 50-year-old Covid-19 positive patient had leapt to death from the third floor of a hospital where he was being treated.
Meanwhile, there is growing opposition by residents of various localities in Karnataka where quarantine facilities are set-up. On Wednesday, residents of Bapujinagar in Shivamoga had attacked a hostel, which had been designated as a quarantine facility for those coming back from Mumbai, destroying furniture and other equipment.
Earlier, residents of Giringar in Bengaluru and Anekal on the outskirts of the city had staged similar protests. Their main concern was that infected people may spread the disease among the people of that area. However, a health department official said this kind of NIMBY (not in my back yard) pheonomenon was not acceptable and while government would strive to ensure that it took all precautions, people cannot take law into their hands.
