Harish Rana, a 31-year-old man in a coma for 13 years, died on Tuesday at AIIMS. He became the first person in India allowed passive euthanasia under a Supreme Court order. His cremation took place on Wednesday morning at Green Park cremation ground in South Delhi.
On Wednesday morning, the funeral pyre of Harish Rana was lit at the Green Park cremation ground in South Delhi. Rituals began just after 9 am, with his body placed on a platform covered in rose petals. His younger brother Ashish Rana and sister Bhavna performed the rites, surrounded by about 100 people including family, neighbours, and followers of the Brahmakumaris spiritual movement, who stood with folded hands. Father Ashok Rana told those gathered: “We do not want to bid farewell in grief. We will bid farewell to his soul in peace.” Sister Lovely of Brahmakumaris, who knew the family for over five years, said Harish's mother Nirmala “did not shed a single tear,” adding, “The whole family was there. Everyone bid farewell to the soul… In death, as in the years preceding it, the family sought to frame the moment not as an ending but as a transition. There is a journey for a new beginning.” Harish, 31, had been in a permanent vegetative state since 2013, when he fell from a fourth-floor balcony in Chandigarh as a BTech student. For 13 years, he was sustained by artificial nutrition via a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube and occasional oxygen support. The Delhi High Court rejected the family's plea to withdraw life support in 2024. The Supreme Court initially declined but on March 11, 2026, permitted it, extending the 2018 Common Cause v. Union of India judgment. He was moved to AIIMS on March 14, where the feeding tube was removed under supervision. He died Tuesday evening. Sources at AIIMS said the family donated his corneas and heart valve. The family provided constant care, including four daily feedings, bedsore treatment, physiotherapy, and repositioning. After retiring from catering, Ashok sold sandwiches and burgers at a local cricket ground to support them.
