North Delhi civic body orders probe into woman sanitation worker's death

North Delhi Mayor Jai Prakash said an "internal inquiry" has been ordered into the death of a 53-year-old woman sanitation worker who jumped from the third floor of the civic body-run Balak Ram Hospital on Thursday.

The victim has been identified as Kaushalya Devi, a resident of Delhi's Dhaka village, police said.

"We are saddened by this incident. Police is investigating the incident. An internal inquiry has been ordered into the case from our side," the mayor said.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta and Prakash were scheduled to inaugurate an isolation ward at the hospital at 12 noon on Thursday.

"The programme has been deferred due this incident. We will try to do it next week perhaps," Prakash said.

However, the mayor claimed that the woman was found lying on the ground "with no visible injury marks on her face or body, which is bizzare, and therefore our internal probe will also examine all the aspects. And, postmortem will reveal the cause too." There was no immediate reaction from the police on this claim.

"She was offered a job in the hospital on compassionate grounds after her husband's death. She had joined about 10-12 years ago. The woman had some issues in the family, and used to bring her son, in 20s, to work," the mayor said.

Asked if the CCTV camera footage has been checked, he said, police is investigating.  After first-aid, the woman was rushed to the Aruna Asaf Ali Hospital where she was declared brought dead, a senior police officer earlier said.

The NDMC in a statement later said, "From the facts reported by officers concerned, it is deduced that she was suffering from diabetes and hypertension. Also, her colleagues have apprised that she was undergoing some domestic problems as well".

She is survived by two sons and a daughter, police said.

"We will try to offer every possible help to her family. This is extremely difficult time due to COVID-19," the mayor said.