Kolkata, Jul 1 (IANS): In a shocking incident, the body of a septuagenarian who died of Covid-19 kept lying in his city home for two days ago before it was taken away by Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) on Wednesday, the National Doctor's Day.

Mohan Mallick, 71, died at his apartment in Amherst Street area around 3 pm on Monday. Family sources said that Mallick returned home from a local market and suddenly succumbed to his illness. The family called a doctor who came wearing PPE kit and took blood samples for Covid-19 test. He reportedly asked the family to wait for the test report to arrive.

Since no one took the responsibility to keep the body till then, the body kept lying in the apartment even as family members desperately trying to contact police, health and civic body authorities.

"We ran from pillar to post, be it KMC, health department and the police, to take the body for cremation but there was no result," said Akshay Mallick, the deceased's nephew.

He said they received Covid positive report late Tuesday night, after which the family contacted the health department on Wednesday morning.

"We never thought we will have to wait for almost two days for the formal procedure to be done. This was really horrible," he said, adding that finally the KMC officials took away the body on Wednesday for cremation.

No health department official was ready to comment on the issue. Sources in the KMC, however, said the Covid body was cremated following ICMR guidelines.