Guruprasad Mohapatra, secretary in the department of industry and internal trade (DPIIT), died of Covid-related complications on Saturday. He was 59.

Mohapatra, who was undergoing treatment at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, is survived by his wife and two sons.

The 1986-batch IAS officer, who was the youngest son of Odia litterateur Mohapatra Nilamani Sahoo, had undergone plasma therapy at least twice during his two-month long treatment for Covid-19 after being admitted to the AIIMS, New Delhi, on April 19. “All his family members had got infected by Covid-19 but except him everyone else recovered. He was diagnosed with Covid on April 14,” said a relative.

Guruprasad was cremated in New Delhi in the afternoon.

His mother Prasanna Kumari, who is in her late eighties, was inconsolable. “With a lot of hesitation, we broke the news to her. She is in a bad shape. We don’t know how to console her,” said Guruprasad’s sister Anuradha Mohapatra, who retired as the vice-principal of a school.

Prasanna, whose eldest son Sanat Mohapatra died in 2015 and her husband in 2016, is now being looked after by her daughter-in-law Anusuya and daughter Anuradha.

Senior IPS officer (1991 batch) and vigilance director Debasis Panigrahi also succumbed to Covid-19 in Calcutta on Friday night while undergoing treatment. He was 55. Panigrahi was cremated at Cuttack on Saturday. Panigrahi is survived by his wife, son and daughter.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik and Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Pratap Sarangi condoled the death of two sons of the soil.