A 45-year-old Covid-19 patient was found hanging from the ceiling of a cabin in West Mindapore’s Salboni Covid Hospital around 2am on Friday.

Gopal Ghorai, a resident of Kharagpur’s Sultanpur village, had been admitted to the hospital on August 12 after tests in the course of a sepsis infection treatment had led to Covid diagnosis.

Ghorai was found on Friday morning hanging by a piece of cloth from the ceiling of a private cabin adjacent to the 200-bed main ward. Hospital sources said prima facie it seemed Ghorai had committed suicide. Ghorai’s son, however, alleged that it was a “murder” given that his father could barely walk on his own.

“I refuse to believe my father could take this step himself since he could barely walk. He was murdered first and then hung,” said Biswajit Ghorai.

Biswajit is also a Covid patient undergoing treatment at Midnapore town’s Ayush hospital.

“My father had been suffering from crippling sepsis in his foot since July. So, how could he walk?” Biswajit added.

Hospital officials on Friday said they were treating the incident as suicide, but sources said later on Friday that health officials had asked Salboni police station to start an investigation in connection with Biswaji’s complaint.

“Since a formal complaint has been lodged by the son, we have requested police to do the needful,” said chief medical officer (health), Nimai Mondal, adding that a post-mortem had been completed.

Hospital sources said Ghorai did not have any known problems with other patients in the ward, adding that investigations would cover all angles.

The sources added that Ghorai’s body was being handled according to the Covid protocol.

The 200-bed Salboni Covid hospital, sources said, was at its full capacity as of Thursday night.

Total Covid cases in the district as of Friday stood at 2,500 with 1,706 having recovered and the death toll was 27.