"We are now waiting for our sister Aditi Gupta, who is due to return from Germany by 6:00am today. Then we will take my father back home", the journalist's youngest son, Priyatosh Gupta told The Daily Star yesterday adding that family members would later decide on his funeral.

Santosh, who is fighting for life at the intensive care unit (ICU) of BIRDEM hospital since Saturday last, was still in coma till yesterday afternoon.

Doctors are unable to feel his pulse in the hands and legs. They are forced to feed him artificially through a channel in his chest, Priyatosh said.

Santosh was admitted to the hospital after he fell ill while taking a morning walk. He suffered from brain haemorrhage from ruptured veins, Priyatosh quoted medical reports as saying.

Dhaka University Teachers Association President Prof AAMS Arefin Siddiqui with some other colleagues yesterday visited the hospital to see the columnist.

Santosh is working with Daily Sangbad as the senior assistant editor. Father of two sons and a daughter, Santosh was born on January 9 in 1925 at Runshi village in Jhalokathi. He started his career in journalism in 1957 at the then Dailnik Azad and worked at Daily Purbakon before joining Daily Sangbad in 1965.

He actively participated in the Liberation War. He was the assistant secretary of the information department of the then Bangladesh government in exile.