Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Union Minister Alphons Kannanthanam has been caught in yet another controversy after accusations were sprung on him about hiding that his mother died of COVID-19 and doing her final rites in Kerala.
However, Kannanthanam put out a Facebook post, denying the charges. He said that his mother had tested positive for the coronavirus on May 28 and was admitted at the ICU of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi. But she had recovered later, he said.
"Repeat test on June 5 and June 10 at AIIMS showed that she was negative. Even though she was cured of COVID-19, her vital organs were badly damaged due to the disease. Her lungs collapsed and finally (she) died of heart seizure," the IAS official turned politician posted.
He asks, "So is it wrong to say that she died of Covid? When a person dies of brain injuries in a car accident, do we say that he/she died of brain injuries, or do we say that he/she died of a car accident? Obviously, car accident."
Kannanthanam wrote that his mother was perfectly healthy at 91 years of age but that she died because 'COVID-19 destroyed her vital organs'.
He claimed that a certain person, 'who does not even deserve to be named, has survived all his life blackmailing the society'.
"Leave us alone. We are trying to reach food to the hungry through MOTHERS MEAL," Alphons said, referring to his charity initiative to provide food to the poor during the pandemic times, and about reaching 10 million people within a year.
The incident came to light after Jomon Puthenpurackal, who had earlier taken a keen interest in the Sr Abhaya case, put out a post on Sunday about Kannanthanam. He said that the BJP leader had not earlier revealed about his mother dying of COVID-19. After she died in Delhi on June 10, she was brought to rest in her grave in Kottayam on June 14, following a public homage. It is later in a video for his charity programme that Alphons spoke about his mother having died of COVID-19, Jomon wrote.