CHENNAI: A sick 75-year-old grandmother who was thrown in garbage by her relatives last week has died, officials said on Wednesday. Chinnammal Palaniappan died on Sunday in a home for elderly people where she was taken after being rescued from the garbage dump in Erode town.

She had told her rescuers that on July 19 she was taken from her home by her grandsons and on waking up found herself among a heap of rotting garbage.

“She was improving after she was fed and given necessary medicines in the facility but on Sunday evening she developed breathing problems and died,” an official said.

In a statement made to her rescuers before her death, the woman said her daughter had instructed the grandsons to dump her far away, so that she could not find her way back.

She was taken to the facility for the elderly as she did not have the address of her home.

The state government has promised an investigation and action against the woman’s family.—AFP