Two migrants die of illness, dumped by truck drivers

Kanpur: Two migrant workers, including a 16-year-old boy, died in separate incidents in Kanpur and Kannauj districts while on way to their native places since late Saturday night.

A 16-year-old minor migrant worker, who along with his two family members, was dumped on the roadside by a truck driver at Ramadevi crossing as he fell sick during a journey from Mumbai to Bahraich, died at the hospital gate on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday.

As the boy was working in Mumbai, the hotbed of corona, police alerted the health department team which rushed to the spot and collected deceased Khusbuddin’s samples for test. The team also took the samples of the boy’s brother Salahuddin and uncle Iqbal for testing, police said.

A photograph of distraught Salahuddin and Iqbal, sitting in the green belt on Kanpur-Lucknow highway with the boy’s body, has gone viral on social media. Salahuddin said that his brother Khusbuddin had accompanied him and his uncle Iqbal to Mumbai in search of job few months ago.

They got stranded in Mumbai after the lockdown. On April 14, they took a truck along with others to go to their village in Maqsoodpur area of Bahraich, but on Saturday evening, Khusbuddin fell ill and since he had fever and vommited, the truck driver suspected him to be coronavirus infected, dumped him at Ramadevi bypass on the highway on late Saturday night, Salahuddin said. Some policemen present at the spot, took them to a local hospital from where the boy was referred to the government hospital, but he succumbed on way.

Inspector Chakeri Ram Kumar Gupta said, “As the boy reportedly had high fever and was also vomiting, we alerted health department team after which his sample was collected. The boy’s uncle and brother were also examined”.

A 60-year-old migrant worker, who worked in a factory in Mumbai, also died in similar circumstances while travelling from Mumbai to Kannauj on Saturday.

The man, after being dumped by a truck driver in Kannauj, was on way to Hardoi, along with his nephew Narendra, also a private worker in Mumbai. Identified as Vikram, the man was a resident of Satliyapur village of Sandi police station in Hardoi, and was heading home on foot. According to police, he collapsed near the sales tax office close to Mahadevi Ghat road, after which his nephew tried to arrange for a vehicle in order to rush him to a nearby hospital, but he succumbed.

“As per his nephew, his uncle was fit and fine, but as he had returned from Mumbai, we alerted the health department team which will arrive and collect his nasal and swab samples for Covid-19 test,” said inspector Kotwali Nagendra Pathak.