Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday confirmed that all efforts are being made to bring the bodies of the 8 Kerala tourists who died in a Nepal hotel room on Tuesday, back to India as soon as possible.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, CM Pinarayi expressed his deep condolences at the demise of the 8 tourists, all of whom were from Thiruvananthapuram.
"We have taken steps to bring the bodies back to India as soon as possible. NORKA (Department of Non Resident Kerala Affairs) authorities have got in touch with Indian Embassy in Nepal. We hope to ensure that the bodies reach Kerala by tomorrow, post formalities," the CM's post read. CM Pinarayi has also sought the intervention of external affairs minister S Jaisankar to provide all assistance to the families of the deceased.
The 8 deceased belonged to two families who were in Nepal on holiday, where they reportedly asphyxiated inside their hotel room. Praveen Krishnan Nair (39) and his wife Saranya (34) died along with their three kids, Sreebhadra (9), Aarcha (8) and Abhi Nair (7). While Praveen who hails from Thiruvananthapuram was working in Dubai, his wife was studying in Kochi.
The 3 others who passed away are Praveen's friend Renjith Kumar TB (39) who hails from Kozhikode, his wife Indu Renjith (34) and their son Vaishnav Renjith (2) who also slept in the same room. Indu and Renjith had two children and their son Madhav's life was spared as he was sleeping in another room.
According to the hotel manager of the Everest Panorama Resort where the families stayed on Monday night, the door and windows of the room inside which they were found unconscious had been bolted from inside. They had even turned on the gas heater inside the room, to keep themselves warm, which possibly caused the asphyxiation.
Both families were part of a 15 member group who had made a pit stop at Daman before taking their flight back to India from Kathmandu. They had checked into the hotel at 9:30 pm on Monday night after returning from Pokhara.
On Tuesday morning, local police were alerted after the rest of the group went to check on them. On finding the unconscious inside the room, they were airlifted to Kathmandu's HAMS hospital in two sorties. However, the families were declared dead on arrival at the hospital.
A statement from the Indian Embassy in Nepal also said "Our doctor, along with a member of the group, is in the hospital. Other group members and family from India/Dubai are on their way to Kathmandu. Contact details of Mission officials have been shared with family/friends," it said.