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Image Credit: Gulf News

Muscat: The stranded housemaid who died at the Muscat International Airport, had no sickness before she left, according to her sponsor Khalid Hamad Al Ghailani.

Talking to Gulf News from his home in eastern port town of Sur, Al Ghailani said that he had got her examined at the government hospital in Sur before sending her home for good.

"She had no health issues," he said.

He said that he has disclosed this to the one-man fact-finding mission sent to Oman by India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to probe into the circumstances that lead to the death of the Indian housemaid, Beebi Lumada.

Lumada, 40, was stranded for five days at the Muscat International Airport after she lost her passport at Doha while in transit. She was travelling to Chennai from Muscat via Doha by Qatar Airways.

It is learnt that K. N. Meena, a senior MEA official from India, is in Oman.

India's Minister of External Affairs, S. M. Krishna, had earlier announced that a senior official will visit Oman to investigate the death of Lumada, who died while being taken to Ibn Sinha Hospital last Friday (October 8).

According to reliable sources, Meena accompanied by the Indian Consular and Head of the Chancery in Muscat, went to Sur to speak to Al Ghailani and the deceased maid's friends and other housemaids in the area.

The meetings were facilitated at the Indian School in Sur by the mission's Honorary Consular in the eastern port town of Oman.

The Indian ambassador to Oman, Anil Wadhwa, neither answered to phone calls nor did he reply to SMS request sent by this correspondent.

Qatar Airways spokesperson had told Gulf News last week that Lumada was brought back to the origin of port after she could not locate her passport at the Doha airport before taking a flight to Chennai. She was travelling to her home town Chitoor in Andhra Pradesh from Chennai.

Muscat International Airport has limited facilities in the transit area. The airline, however, provided the housemaid with food as well as a blanket for five days after requesting the mission to process papers for either her exit permit or duplicate passport.

"We had no response and even the airport police informed the embassy but there was delay from their side," the airline official had said soon after Lumada died.