Wife seeks repatriation of remains of Hindu man buried in Saudi Arabia after being mistaken for Muslim

Dubai: An Indian woman is seeking the repatriation of the remains of her Hindu husband who was mistakenly buried in Saudi Arabia as per Muslim rites, local media reported.

According to the woman, her husband was wrongly buried in Saudi Arabia as per Muslim rites due to an error in the translation of his religion on the death certificate by the Indian Consulate in Jeddah.

Officials at the Consulate have contacted relevant Saudi authorities, asking permission to retrieve the deceased’s body in order to repatriate his remains to India, so that his family can bury him in compliance with Hindu rituals.

The widow approached the Delhi High Court seeking an order to bring back the mortal remains of her husband from the Kingdom.

Sanjeev Kumar, an Indian citizen, passed away on January 24 at his workplace in Saudi Arabia. He died due to diabetes, hypertension and cardiac arrest and the mortal remains were kept in Beesh General Hospital, Jizan.

In her petition, the woman alleged that on getting the information of her husband’s death, her family members asked the authorities concerned to repatriate the mortal remains.

A bench of Justice Pratibha M. Singh, while hearing the petition, also instructed the counsel representing the Indian foreign ministry to file a status report with the details of the steps taken towards addressing the woman's concerns. Justice Singh remarked that the woman has been approaching the authorities since January after her husband’s death, and adequate steps should have been taken to address her grievances.

Later, the woman was asked to execute a Power of Attorney for completing the formalities of repatriation of mortal remains of Sanjeev Kumar and the same was done on January 28, the petition said.

However, on February 18, the wife was informed that the body of her husband was buried in Saudi Arabia even as she was waiting for his mortal remains in India.

The officials at the Jeddah Indian Consulate appologised to the woman and explained that it was due to a mistake committed by the official translator of the Indian Consulate, Jeddah, who wrongly mentioned his religion as ‘Muslim’ in the death certificate.