A 74-year-old
man, who was mistakenly declared dead by a doctor in a Tamil
Nadu hospital and put in a mortuary freezer earlier this week, died on Friday.

Balasubramanyam
Kumar was put in a freezer on Monday after a private hospital in the city of Salem
declared him dead, according to a BBC report.

Undertakers
realised he was alive the next day when they came to collect the body and saw it
shivering.

Police have registered a case against the family for “acting rashly or negligently to
endanger human life.”

Balasubramanyam’s
family was unable to produce a medical certificate of his death, Salem police
chief Senthil Kumar said.

Dr
Balajinathan, the dean of the Salem government hospital, told BBC Tamil that Balasubramanyam
was admitted in a drowsy condition and he later died of lung-related
complications.

He stated
it was inconclusive how long the patient had spent in the freezer and whether it
was the cause of his death.

Police
chief Senthil Kumar said that his family claimed he was also
suffering from neurological disorders.

He lived
with his wife, two daughters and a brother.

The family told
relative that they will hold a funeral on Tuesday after he was declared dead
the day before. They took the “body” home and made arrangements for a freezer
box with a local undertaker.

The funeral
company said Balasubramanyam’s brother told them that he had a signed letter
from a doctor confirming his death.

It is
unclear as of right now how he survived the freezing temperatures
for an entire day and if the private hospital, which initially declared him dead,
was being probed for the its negligence.