Good Samaritan Asif fishes out covid victim’s body from well

Udupi, Oct 5: Who will fish out the dead body if a covid-19 positive person who ended life by jumping into a well? When the government officials and relatives of the deceased were hesitant to take any step, it was Good Samaritan Asif who travelled from Mangaluru to Karkala and fished out the body.

Prasanna Acharya, a 46-year-old photographer, who had ended his life by jumping into a well near his house in Karakala in the wee hours of Saturday after testing positive for covid-19.

His family members, friends and officials from revenue department, police department and fire service personnel reached the spot. But none among them were ready to go down into the well and touch the body.

At around 2:30p.m. a helpless Tahsildar Purandar Hegde contacted Good Samaritan Asif aka Apatbandhava Asif over phone. The officials waited for one and a half hours as Asif had to travel from Mangaluru.

Soon after reaching the spot Asif went down into the well the help of a rope and fished out the body within a few minutes with the help of another rope. He then took a bath.

When the officials asked him about his fee, Asif convinced them that altruistic acts cannot be purchased.  “I came here on humanitarian grounds and not for money. I need your prayers. If you want to help me you can visit our centre for mentally challenged and help the inmates,” said Mr Asif.