Dubai: The Indian Consulate in Dubai has denied an Indian media report that claimed a woman’s body has been lying in a morgue in Sharjah since 2005.
On April 12, The Indian Express reported that “a body lying in a morgue in Sharjah since September 3, 2005, has been prima facie recognised” as belonging to one Smitha George, who allegedly disappeared a decade ago after landing in the UAE.
The report said Smitha, then 25, arrived in Dubai on September 1, 2005, and went missing on September 3, the same day when an “unidentified body of a woman was admitted into a hospital morgue in Sharjah … In the years since, there was no news of Smitha despite her family’s best efforts, while nobody came for the body in the morgue.”
Blood samples
The report claimed that Smitha’s father in Kerala, India, had moved the High Court, which directed the Indian Consulate in Dubai to publish photographs of Smitha in local dailies.
The report said the police were looking to scientifically establish the identity of the body and that blood samples of family members had been collected by an advocate who had flown down to Kerala from Dubai. It said that if the DNA result proved that the body indeed belonged to Smitha, police would take further action.
The Indian Consulate said in a statement: “We have checked with the Sharjah Police authorities and it has been confirmed that there is no such body lying in the mortuary matching the description. It was also confirmed that no mortal remains are kept for that long under any circumstances.”
