In a letter to the Union Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan requested the Centre to persuade Nepal to compensate for the deaths of eight tourists from the state, who died on January 21 at a resort in Nepal’s Daman. He also wrote that the Centre should ask the Nepal government for a detailed investigation of the deaths.
On January 21, eight members of two families — Ranjith Punathil (39), Indu Ranjith (34), Vaishnav Ranjith (2), Praveen Krishnan Nair (39), Saranya (34), Sreebhadra (9), Aarcha (8) and Abhi Nair (7) — were found dead in their hotel room in Nepal. Due to the chilly weather, the families had requested for a heater. The hotel staff, however, provided them with an outdoor heater. The door and windows of the room were locked. The eight are suspected to have died due to carbon monoxide poisoning caused by the heater.
Writing about the letter on his Facebook page, he said he has asked the Centre to ask Nepal to compensate the families of the eight members who met a tragic end last week.
Pinarayi Vijayan had earlier on Sunday visited the house of Praveen's family in Chengotukonam, Thiruvananthapuram and spoke to his parents, Krishnan Nair and Prasanna.
Praveen was working in UAE and was on a short vacation with his family and friends. Ranjith’s elder son Madhav, aged seven, survived since he had slept in another room.
A day earlier, the CM had asked the state's MPs to take up the matter with the Centre to pursue the matter with the neighbouring country's government.
When the bodies of Praveen, Saranya and their kids were brought to Thiruvananthapuram, hundreds of people, many of them strangers, had come to pay their last respects. The family of Praveen Nair decided to bury the bodies of the three children and cremate the bodies of Praveen and Saranya.
The second family hailed from Kozhikode. The bodies of Ranjith, an IT professional, his wife, who works in a cooperative bank, and their younger child, arrived at the Kozhikode airport on Friday morning. After the public paid last respects, the bodies were cremated at Ranjith’s family home.