In yet another alarming case of death due to sudden heart attack, a 56-year-old man died after he suffered a heart attack on stage while performing the role of Lord Rama at a Ramlila in Vishwakarma Nagar of Shahdara on Sunday.

According to police, the deceased, identified as Sushil Kaushik, was a property dealer who became unconscious while performing in Ramleela. DCP Shahdara Surendra Chaudhary said that following the incident, he was shifted to Kailash Deepak Hospital in Anand Vihar.

Reacting to the incident on social media, Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said the death could be linked with COVID vaccine. “It is a common discussion that after the COVID-19 vaccine, such cases are continuously appearing in India, where young people are dying of heart attacks while walking,” he said on X.

A video of the incident is being widely circulated on social media where Sushil can be seen performing the scene and then rushing backstage with visible discomfort. According to the family, Sushil, who is survived by his wife and two children, experienced the discomfort around 1 pm.

Rahul Kaushik, a relative of the deceased, stated that Sushil was one of the founding members of the “Jai Shri Ramlila” committee. “Uncle had been performing the role of Raja Ram since 1987. He also used to sing,” he said.

His wife and son, present there, rushed him to a nearby hospital, where he was put on a ventilator and was declared dead after one hour. A person known to the deceased described him as a man who was healthy, happy and humorous and claimed that he had no prior health conditions that could explain the sudden cardiac pulmonary arrest.

He also remembered him as a man who was actively involved in religious programmes.

“He was a very healthy man and had no medical conditions that could lead to this sudden demise. He was a great singer and belonged to a family that was very active culturally,” he said. Sunil was performing Sita’s ‘swayamvar’ scene which required him to break the bow, however, while singing a song, he felt a sudden chest pain and went backstage, where he collapsed.

Such cases of sudden heart attack are not new with many such cases reported in the past. In January, a 62-year-old man playing Lord Hanuman suffered a similar fate during a Ramleela event in Haryana’s Bhiwani

Many on social media expressed grief over the incident while some blamed the Covid vaccines for upsurge in such cases. “Another heart attack, another death. Such cases are coming up every day but the Government does not seem to be serious about it at all. This incident happened in Shahdara, Delhi, where the person playing the role of Ram in Ramleela died of a heart attack,” an X user posted.