Mortal remains of Hindu man buried in Saudi Arabia brought back to India

New Delhi: The Centre on Wednesday apprised the Delhi High Court that the mortal remains of a Hindu man, who was wrongly buried in Saudi Arabia, has arrived in India and handed over to his family.

The submission on behalf of the Ministry of External Affairs was made before Justice Prathiba M Singh by Vishnu Sharma, Director, CPV Division.

He informed that the mortal remains of the deceased Sanjeev Kumar has arrived in India the morning and handed over to the family and transported to Una, Himachal Pradesh, the native place of the deceased.

The court conveyed its gratitude to the Saudi Authorities in the matter.

The counsel Subhash Chandran who was appeared for the virtual hearing from his hospital bed even after he was tested positive for the coronavirus, also expressed his satisfaction.

The court had earlier asked the government to explore alternate legal remedies available with it in the foreign land to exhume and repatriate the remains.

The court was hearing a plea moved by deceased Sanjeev Kumar’s widow seeking his remains to perform the last rites here.

The widow, Anju Sharma, in her plea, had said that on getting the news of her husband’s death, the family had requested the authorities to repatriate the mortal remains.

According to the petition, Sanjeev Kumar passed away on January 24 this year at his workplace in Saudi Arabia. He has been working in Saudi Arabia for the past 23 years and died due to diabetes, hypertension, and cardiac arrest, and the mortal remains were kept in Beesh General Hospital, Jizan, Saudi Arabia.

Shockingly, on February 18, the petitioner was informed that the body of her husband had been buried in Saudi Arabia while the family members of the deceased were waiting for the mortal remains in India, the plea stated. (UNI)