Dubai: The body of a Sri Lankan national,
who died in Saudi Arabia, will be flown into India on the
request of his Indian wife as it has no takers in his home
country, a news report has said.
Sri Lankan Consulate in Jeddah is making arrangements to
repatriate the remains of expatriate worker Pasupathipillai
Sivanandan who died of cardiac arrest while he was resting in
his apartment after work, the Arab News report said.
Sivanandan, 65, who was working as a storekeeper at a
hotel, was married to an Indian woman and his wife and two
children live in Chennai.
"There are no claimants for the remains from Sri Lanka,"
S D Moorthy, consul for labour welfare at the Indian Consulate
in Jeddah, told the newspaper. He has been working in Saudi
Arabia for 20 years.
"The Indian consulate has also got a request from the Sri
Lankan Consulate in Jeddah for permission to transport the
body to Chennai as pleaded by his wife Rukmani Devi," Moorthy
said, adding that his consulate had taken up the matter with
the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi for approval.
Sri Lankan Consul General Athambawa Uthumalebbe said that
the dead worker did not have any relatives back in Sri Lanka.
"There was no one to receive his body in Colombo," the
consul general said.
He added that the body would be ferried as soon as the
necessary documents were processed for clearance from the
airport. Uthumalebbe also thanked the Indian Consulate in
Jeddah for its cooperation to repatriate the body to India.
"It is an example of excellent bilateral relations
between the two countries," he said.
The management of the hotel is making arrangements to
settle his salary dues, which will be sent to the bereaved
family in India through the Sri Lankan mission.
PTI
