Indian 'Covid victim comes back from the dead'

Indian ‘Covid victim comes back from the dead’ two years after bungling health officials told his family his body had been cremated

  • Kamlesh Patidar’s family were told he had died after being infected with Covid
  • But two years later, Patidar appeared in the doorway of his family’s home 

For two years, an Indian man’s family have been grappling with their grief after officials told them he had died from Covid and his body had been cremated alongside hundreds of other victims during the height of the pandemic.

But, far from being dead, Kamlesh Patidar appeared in the doorway of his family’s home on Saturday – two years after they had performed his last rites.

His wife, Rekha Patidar, froze in shock at seeing the husband she thought had died and burst into tears. 

‘I was living the life of a life of a widow since February 2021,’ she told the Times of India. ‘We had performed all the rituals that are done after the death of a family member. 

‘In fact, some of our relatives were still coming to our home to offer condolences as they hadn’t been able to visit us during the pandemic.’ 

Patidar, aged between 30 and 40, had become ill during the second wave of the pandemic and was admitted to hospital in the western city of Vadodara where bungling health officials declared him dead.

But, far from being dead, Kamlesh Patidar (pictured) appeared in the doorway of his family’s home on Saturday – two years after they had performed his last rites

The officials showed his family a body under the sheet and told them it was Patidar before he was cremated in the peak of the second wave of the pandemic in February 2021. 

‘We trusted the doctors,’ Mahesh Patida, a relative, said. ‘We accepted our fate and returned to live in sorrow.’

But two years later, the father-of-two walked through the door of his uncle’s house in Sardarpur, a town in the state of Madhya Pradesh, in the early hours of Saturday morning. 

‘Rekha was also overcome with emotion and couldn’t speak,’ his father Gendalal Patidar, 69, told the Times of India. Other relatives spoke of how they thought ‘they were seeing things while half asleep’. 

After the tears and screams of his relieved family subsided, Patidar told them he had been kidnapped by a gang who had reportedly injected him with drugs and kept him unconscious.

‘He told me that after recovering from Covid, he was held confined by half a dozen persons in Ahmedabad,’ his relative said. ‘They injected him with drugs and kept him unconscious all the time.’

A dead body waits to be cremated as multiple funeral pyres of those who died of COVID-19 burn at a ground that has been converted into a crematorium for mass cremation of coronavirus victims, in New Delhi, India, in April 2021

Patidar claimed he managed to escape from the gang while he was being taken to an unknown location in a car. The gang reportedly stopped at a roadside hotel for snacks when Patidar managed to run without being noticed to a nearly bus.

‘He is still in a semi-conscious state,’ his relative said.

Police are now investigating Patidar’s claim that he was held hostage by the gang. 

Since the pandemic began, more than half a million people have died as a result of Covid in India, according to the World Health Organisation. 

The country was ravaged by the virus, with images showing the bodies of coronavirus victims being piled into overloaded ambulances to be taken to the crematorium. 

India was in the eye of the world’s Covid storm – and during the second wave in 2021. funeral pyres were burning around the clock in Delhi and Mumbai.  

India’s Health Ministry released guidelines for the cremation of people who died of Covid, with special measures ordered to avoid any potential reinfection. 

In April 2021, families were told they were allowed to cremate or bury victims in their own farms, land or gardens. The home ceremonies had to comply with health guidelines but it was hoped the move will ease the pressure on crematoriums and grave diggers.

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