New Delhi, Sep 12 (PTI): In a tragic case, the parents of a seven-year-old boy who died of suspected dengue after allegedly being denied admission by two prominent private hospitals here committed suicide by jumping from a four- storeyed building in south Delhi's Lado Sarai.
The deceased were identified as Laxmichandra and Babita Rout, both natives of Odisha, said DCP (south) Prem Nath, adding that the couple has left behind a one-page suicide note in Odia, in which they written that "it is nobody's fault" and the "the decision" was theirs.
The couple's only son, Avinash, died of suspected dengue on September 8 after allegedly being denied admission at two prominent private hospitals on the previous day.
Taking cognisance of the matter, Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain has ordered issuance of show-cause notice to the two hospitals, a senior government official said.
The Union Health Ministry has ordered an inquiry into the case.
Health Minister JP Nadda said that the "guilty will not be spared". "Ordered inquiry into incident reported in media involving death of child in Delhi due to Dengue and suicide by parents. Guilty won't be spared," the minister said in a tweet.
The couple's bodies were discovered by a neighbour on the intervening night between Thursday and Friday. The couple had their arms tied together with a stole.
The police have initiated an inquest proceeding into the incident under Section 174 CrPC. No case has been registered so far in the matter.
Laxmichandra worked with a private company and the family had been living for more than one year in a two-room rented apartment at Lado Sarai, said a police official.
The dengue death toll in the national capital now stands at five although the Municipal Corporation is yet to include three deaths in the official list.
According to municipal corporation data, 1,259 cases of dengue have been reported in Delhi this year till September 5 with at least 428 cases coming in the first week of this month.