The wife of a Telangana man who died in an accident at his workplace in Saudi Arabia on November 1 last year has approached the state High Court to repatriate his body. Vontari Laxmi pointed out that the body of her husband, Narsareddy, who hailed from Sirnapalli village in Indalwai mandal in Nizamabad district, had not been repatriated even three months after his death.
The petition, filed with the help of the Pravasi Mithra Labour Union, sought immediate repatriation of the mortal remains from Saudi Arabia to India.
On November 5, 2020, four days after Narsareddy’s death, his family members sent petitions to the Ministry of External Affairs in Delhi, the Indian Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and the NRI Cell of the Telangana government requesting repatriation of the mortal remains. They also requested MLAs, MLCs, MPs and Ministers in the Telangana government and Union government, but to no avail.
After a long wait for the body, the family members approached local leaders, activists and lawyers to take up the case. Migrant labour leaders reached Hyderabad on February 3 along with the family members of the deceased. They met human rights activist and advocate P Shashi Kiran, and applied for a writ petition in the High Court. They also submitted a petition to Ministry of External Affairs official Mukesh Koushik, who is the Protector of Emigrants at Hyderabad.
The writ petition was filed in the High Court on February 4. The Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India and the Indian Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia have been marked as the respondents. The petitioners sought directions to the Government of India to take steps to send the body from Saudi to India immediately.
In an emotional appeal to the media, Narsareddy’s mother Sathyamma said that he had been working in Saudi Arabia for the last seven years. “We’re yet to get a response on sending his body back, either from the company that employed him or from authorities. We’re in trauma waiting for his body to arrive.”