Union Health Secy Lav Agarwal's brother found dead at Shahranpur; suicide suspected

In a tragic development, Joint Health secretary Lav Agarwal's brother Ankur Agarwal was found dead at Shahranpur's Pilakhani district on Monday. Police officials stated that prima facie it seemed like a suicide case as Ankur's licensed pistol was found near him. The investigation is currently underway.

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Lav Agarwal's brother found dead

Sources report that the family has denied the hospital officials from performing a post-mortem. Moreover, sources further report that Ankur had previously attempted to commit suicide. The top bureaucrat is yet to respond to the development.

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Face of Coronavirus briefings

The 48- year-old IAS officer - Lav Agarwal came to spotlight when he became the face of the Union Health Ministry's COVID-19 response at the daily Coronavirus briefings in April. The 1996-batch Andhra Pradesh IAS officer had briefed the media since then about the daily rise in infections, the steps taken by the Centre, vital stats and other announcements. He also handled queries from the press, while defending the government's actions on a daily basis since then.

While the Centre had reduced its Coronavirus briefings to once or twice a month, Agarwal had consistently justified that India is not in 'Community transmission' stage by explaining the low rate of infection throughout India's population. He also consistently and calmly dismissed allegations that the government was under-reporting deaths. He often handled tricky questions regarding the low testing rate - maintaining that India was testing adequately as per its infection rate and was ramping up its capabilities constantly. Later, Agarwal himself tested positive for Coronavirus but recovered within a few days.

Agarwal originally hails from Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur district and completed his mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, as per reports. He then joined the IAS where he extensively in the education and health sectors in his cadre state before being posted at the Centre in 2016. Since the breaking of the pandemic in India, Agarwal has headed several Central review teams and visited some of the most-affected districts in India. While he has been present at the Centre's Health meetings and press conferences, he no longer addresses the press, as India's vaccination program gets underway.

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