72-year-old man goes to deposit banned notes, dies outside Mumbai bank

A 72-year-old Mulund resident waiting in a queue outside a bank to deposit banned notes collapsed and died on Friday morning.

According to the local police, Vishwas Vartak, a retired public works department (PWD) employee suffered a massive heart attack and died on the spot.

The incident took place at Hari Om Nagar in Mulund outside the State Bank of India (SBI). Vartak, a local had reached the bank around 11.30 am to exchange demonetised currencies of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000. “There was no crowd because the area isn’t that populated. It had been barely 10 minutes after he came that he collapsed right in front of the door of the bank,” a source from the police said.

While the bank officials and locals immediately contacted a general practitioner who runs a clinic in the vicinity, they also contacted Navghar police officials. The doctor, upon checking the Vartak’s vitals, pronounced him dead. The primary cause of death was sighted as mayocardial infraction (MI).

“Since it was an accidental death, we took the body to Rajawadi post-mortem centre to ascertain the cause of death,” said an official from Navghar Police station. Forensic specialists from Rajawadi post-mortem centre said that according to the case details, they do not think that the senior citizen died of a heatstroke or exertion. “The primary cause of death is heart attack but even then, we have sent the blood samples and viscera for forensic analysis. The final cause of death will be revealed once we get the report from Kalina forensic laboratory,” said the forensic expert.