Amid the 21-day nationwide lockdown called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stop spead of Coronavirus pandemic, a 38-year-old man, who had walked over 200 km from Delhi to reach his home in Madhya Pradesh’s Morena, collapsed and died at Delhi-Agra highway, on Sunday.
Ranveer Singh was a delivery agent in Delhi at a restaurant, and like thousands of desperate migrants workers facing the brunt of lockdown who are left stranded without work, food or money and no means to reach their native villages, he also decided to walk on foot to cover hundreds of kilometres to reach his village.
According to the police, he was still 100 km away from his village in Morena district, when he complained of chest pain and soon collapse after speaking to two men who were accompanying Singh.
A local hardware store owner Sanjay Gupta rushed to the victim around the Kailash turning of the National Highway-2.
“Gupta made the victim lie down on a carpet and offered him tea and biscuit. The victim complained about chest pain and also called his brother-in-law Arvind Singh over phone to share his health condition. At around 6.30 pm, the victim passed away and local police was informed,” said Arvind Kumar, Sikandra station house officer (SHO).
Singh had left for his native village on Friday morning on foot. The exhaustion from a 200-km walk could have lead to his chest pain. “On the entire NH-2 stretch, UP policemen are present with food packets and water for such persons but Ranveer’s death is unfortunate,” the SHO said.
Singh’s body has been taken for post-mortem by the police and the autopsy report is awaited.
Singh had been working in national capital’s Tughlakabad area for the past three years. He is survived by a son and two daughters. He belongs to a family of farmers and was the key bread winner for his family, the police said.