The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court has recently directed the state government to pay a compensation of Rs 5 lakh within four months to the legal heirs of Malati Nehete (82), a Covid-19 patient, whose partially decomposed body was found in a toilet cubicle of Jalgaon civil hospital last June. The court also said it has no hesitation to hold that Nehete died “due to culpable negligence of doctors, nurses and paramedic staff on duty…”.

A division bench of Justice Sanjay V Gangapurwala and Justice Shrikant D Kulkarni made the observation on January 27 while passing a judgment on a PIL filed by social worker Pratibha Shinde and two others, who lost loved ones to Covid-19 in the Jalgaon hospital.