Delhi-based activist drowns off Betalbatim

Plans of celebrating their wedding anniversary on Wednesday in a beach locale of Goa turned tragic for a Delhi-based couple, as 60-year old Dr Amit Sengupta drowned in the waters off Betalbatim beach on Wednesday afternoon.

Sengupta was one of the best-known public health activists in India, and was associated with several social movements in the country and across the globe.

Colva police have booked the case as unnatural death and the body has been preserved in Hospicio’s morgue in Margao for a postmortem.


Police said the Senguptas had arrived in Goa on Tuesday and had checked into a hotel in Betalbatim. “It was their wedding anniversary today (Wednesday). And they had come to Goa to celebrate it,” a police officer said. The incident occurred at around 1.30pm.

Police said that Sengupta was bathing in the water, and when a lifeguard noticed him lying still, he rushed to the spot and brought him to ashore. As efforts to revive him didn’t succeed, he was rushed to Hospicio in a lifeguard jeep.

Drishti officials told TOI that they made all efforts to revive the victim even in the jeep “with AED (automated external defibrillator) connected to the victim and CPR continued, but he was declared dead at Hospicio”.

Academics, colleagues from the public health movement and civil society groups from across the country expressed shock and disbelief on receiving the news. They said his sudden demise was a huge blow to progressive health movement in India.

The cause of his death will be known once the autopsy is conducted on Thursday. However, the incident has brought to the fore the severe frailties in the forensic department of Hospicio.

“Hospicio doesn’t have a forensic surgeon. The lone surgeon conducting autopsies comes from Goa Medical College and Hospital, Bambolim, every day. With Goa being a popular beach destination and too many drowning deaths occurring, it’s imperative that the forensic department in Hospicio is headed by a full-time forensic surgeon,” Dr Venkatesh Hegde, president of the Hospicio’s visiting committee, told TOI.