Assam: Guwahati businessman commits suicide after facing severe economic losses amid lockdown

A 38-year-old businessman committed suicide in Guwahati’s Fancy Bazar area, Assam on July 15^th, 2020 after facing severe economic losses due to the prolonged lockdown enforced to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

The deceased has been identified as Amit Jalan.

“The businessman took the extreme step at around 10 am at his residence by hanging himself. The family members witnessed him and cut the gamusa. Later, we recovered the body and sent for post mortem examination,” Ranjit Moran, Officer-In-Charge of the Panbazar Police Station told INSIDENE.

He further said that the family member had told the police that the deceased was under severe mental pressure due to heavy losses in business for a couple of months.

Also read: Assam records 859 new COVID-19 cases, 6 deaths in last 24 hours

The death of the businessman has raised many questions on the part of the government.

Earlier, the Congress had criticized the government for its ‘unplanned lockdown’ in Guwahati. The grand old party had opined that the government could have thought an alternative to that.

The first phase of the nation-wide lockdown was enforced on March 24^th midnight by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to prevent the spread of COVID-19 which was later extended phase wise.

Assam reported another spike of 859 COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours taking the state’s total to 18,666, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma informed. A total of 627 out of 859 confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported in Guwahati alone.

Out of 18,666 total confirmed COVID-19 cases, 6,444 are active and 12,173 have been cured and discharged so far while death toll has gone up to 46.

The new deceased are Sneha Mall (36), Litu Kumar Bora (37), Sarat Ch Saharia (60), Upendra Nath (62), Pramod Ranjan Saha (73) and Subhakaran Dudheria (73). They all succumbed to COVID-19 as per Death Audit Board report.

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