April 7, 2020
The owner, Mahesh Agarwal of the Kolkata-based Haldiram Bhujiawala aka Pratik Food Products, passed away on 3rd April, Friday night in Singapore.
According the reliable source, Mahesh Agarwal had suffered liver problems and was undergoing treatment in Singapore since last three months.
Amidst the outbreak of Covid-19 and the present scenario of lockdown, the family decided to cremate the body in Singapore.
Avni his daughter spoke from Singapore, “We couldn’t save father but the business back in Kolkata has suddenly been left orphaned and we have to go back to save it…”
With the assurance of a successful surgery of liver transplant, which it was, Agarwal later developed an infection and was shifted from the ICU to a high dependency unit. “The infection that generated was from Candida Auris, according to the papers we have received from the hospital,” Avni said.
“As the hospital authority were not ready to take any risk by performing the last rites, his body was sealed in a plastic bag along with the tracheostomy tubes that he was carrying and put inside an electric incinerator. We had to agree…it was so heartbreaking to see him go that way… but we were helpless,” said Avni.
The deceased’s wife Meena and daughter Avni has expressed their need to return back to India but unable to so in present scenario. The family is in contact with all their relatives to connect with ministers and higher authorities at both levels of Centre and State so that they fly back to India.