Sridevi's death: MEA rules out foul play, says 'anything suspicious would've come out by now'

Sridevi died on February 24, 2018, in a Dubai hotel.

New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs on Friday ruled out any kind of foul play regarding the death of 54-year-old actor Sridevi in Dubai.

"As far as I know, the paperwork from UAE govt were handed over to us and on the basis of that, the mortal remains were brought to India. Had there been something suspicious, it would have come out by now," said MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar.

Sridevi died on February 24, 2018, in Dubai and her body was brought back to India on February 27, 2018,  after the Dubai authorities determined that she had accidentally drowned in her hotel bathtub.

She was given a state funeral on February 28, 2018, with her body wrapped in the tricolour and a gun salute by the Mumbai Police.

Sridevi's body was taken to the Celebration Club at 9 am by her family members. Inside the hall, her family, including brothers-in-law Anil Kapoor and Sanjay Kapoor, stood in a corner. Jahnvi and Khushi were standing a little behind them.

Her funeral procession was the biggest Mumbai had seen for a Bollywood star since Rajesh Khanna in 2012 and perhaps the biggest for a woman actor. There was a sea of people as far as the eye could see.

The funeral procession took about two hours to cover the seven-kilometre distance from Lokhandwala to the crematorium.

The last rites were conducted by her filmmaker husband Boney Kapoor as her family and close friends from the industry and outside packed into the Vile Parle Seva Samaj crematorium.

The actor's body was draped in a red kanjivaram sari with a bindi on her forehead. Ceremonial gunshots rang out and the pyre was lit.

Sridevi, Indian cinema's first woman superstar who straddled the parallel worlds of southern films and Bollywood, became an actor when she was only four years old.

Three hundred films later, the doe-eyed star is still remembered for her comic timing, vivacity and her quicksilver expressions.