The Delhi government ordered a probe into the death of an elderly diabetic engineer at a Covid-19 care centre after other patients of the facility protested on Wednesday.

The man from Tamil Nadu, who would have turned 60 next week, had visited the mosque where a Tablighi Jamaat event had been held in March. He had been brought to the Covid-19 care centre, where patients with mild disease are treated, at northwest Delhi’s Sultanpuri two days ago from a hospital.

The man had been among the 2,346 people evacuated from the Tablighi Jamaat mosque in Nizamuddin in March.

His distraught wife told The Telegraph over phone from Coimbatore: “He had gone for a programme in Delhi on March 21. He did not get his diabetes medicine for 22 days.”

A patient at the Covid-19 care centre told this newspaper that although the man had been given medicines, the 12-odd-hour gap between dinner and breakfast was harmful for diabetics and that the food served was not the kind south Indians were used to. This patient also pointed to language hurdles.

Several patients at the treatment centre from Tamil Nadu and Kerala came out of their rooms to protest the death and uploaded videos on social media complaining about an alleged lack of doctors and adequate treatment.

Divisional commissioner Sanjeev Khirwar told this correspondent: “He came to the Sultanpuri facility on April 20. He had tested positive…. An inquiry has been ordered into his death.”

The Delhi government has sent a formal request to Tamil Nadu Bhavan for the family’s consent to bury him in the capital. A post-mortem is expected to be conducted.

Queries to the chief minister’s office and the directorate-general of health services on the cause of death and the treatment offered had not been answered till late at night.