Dairies head dies; Patanjali says had no role in allopath treatment

Sunil Bansal, who headed the dairy business of yoga guru Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved, died of Covid-19, the company said on Monday, adding that it had no “role in his allopathic treatment.”

Bansal, 57, who was vice-president in the dairy division of Patanjali Ayurved Ltd, “died of Covid-19 on May 19 at Rajasthan Hospital, Jaipur, where his wife is a very senior health official of Government of Rajasthan,” the Haridwar-based firm said in a statement.

Dr Virendra Singh, president, Rajasthan Hospital, Jaipur, said Bansal had severe Covid-19 complications and was undergoing treatment at the hospital for the last two weeks. “He was initially on non-invasive ventilation (NIV); gradually, as his condition deteriorated due to severe pneumonia, he was kept on ventilator support and then on ECMO. But despite all our efforts he couldn’t be saved,” Singh said.

“Baba Ramdev would regularly call us to enquire about Bansal’s condition; he was very concerned,” Singh said. “The treatment given to Bansal was allopathy. Ramdev did suggest some ayurvedic remedies such as giloy (but) we are not aware if Bansal’s family members followed it. We proactively didn’t follow any ayurvedic treatment method — from our end, we followed allopathic treatment.”

He said more details about the medicines can’t be divulged considering patient privacy.

A specialist in dairy science, Bansal had joined Patanjali’s dairy business in January 2018, when the company announced its plans to sell packaged cow milk and other milk-based products, including curd, buttermilk and cheese.

His death comes at a time when Ramdev is courting controversy over his comments about allopathic medicines and COVID-19. The statement, too, reflected that. “Patanjali didn’t have any role in his allopathic treatment which was largely coordinated by his wife,” it said. “However we were concerned and used to ask for his well-being from his wife.”

On Sunday, Ramdev was forced to withdraw a statement made in a video clip in which he is heard saying that “lakhs have died from taking allopathic medicines for Covid-19.” He was also heard questioning some of the medicines being used to treat the disease.

The statement was met with vociferous protests from the doctors’ association, following which Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan asked him to withdraw the “extremely unfortunate” statement.