Over a week after the decomposed body of a Covid-19 patient was found at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in Chennai, a female hospital contract worker was arrested for the patient's murder.

The Covid patient's post-mortem report confirmed that the woman was murdered while the accused hospital worker has confessed that she had murdered the woman for her money and mobile, according to the police. The stolen mobile of the deceased woman, identified as 41-year-old Sunitha, has been recovered from the accused, 40-year-old Rathi Devi, who resides in Thiruvottiyur. The police became suspicious of Rathi Devi after other workers at the hospital informed the officials that they had last seen Rathi Devi taking Sunitha on a wheelchair from ward number 268 on the third floor of Tower-III of the GH.

Rathi Devi, who lived with her son and daughter, was apparently in desperate need of money. A police official was quoted as saying, "Rathi Devi claimed that she took Sunitha to the scanning unit and then dropped her at the ward on May 23 night." Another official said, "Sunitha’s hyoid bone was not broken, which normally broke during strangulation. As her lungs were infected to coronavirus and she had breathing difficulty, Rathi Devi applied mild force and she died immediately."