Soni Satti
The Delhi High Court asked the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) officials to coordinate with the Deputy Chief of Missions of the Saudi Embassy to ease the exhumation and repatriation of the remains of an Indian Hindu man, Sanjeev Kumar who was wrongly buried in Saudi Arabia as per Muslim rites.
The court was hearing a plea filed by the wife of the deceased man Mrs. Anju Sharma seeking urgent direction to the MEA to take the necessary action as
Sanjeev Kumar’s religion on the death certificate was falsely translated.
The plea stated,
“Unfortunately, even after seven weeks of the death of the husband of petitioner, the authorities have failed to do necessary formalities to repatriate the mortal remains of Sanjeev Kumar to India for performing last rites,”
Justice Prathiba M Singh requested the Deputy Chief of Mission to attain some timeline and stated,
“In view of the fact that the timelines are not able to be given by MEA official appearing today, in order to emphasis on the sensitivity of the issue, the MEA official shall also coordinate/communicate with Deputy Chief of Missions, Saudi Arabia located in New Delhi and inform the fact that this court also seeks the same,”
The plea also sought a direction to the Centre to issue the corrected death certificate to his wife and pertinent departmental actions for wilful negligence against the Indian Consulate at Jeddah.
