Jeddah: Saudi Arabian authorities exhumed the body of a Hindu worker two months after he was mistaken as Muslim and buried in a local graveyard.
Indian officials are working to dispatch the body back home for last rites according to the Hindu family tradition.
Andithamy Palanisamy of Madurai district of Tamil Nadu was working in the desert town of Majmah. On May 19, he suffered a cardiac arrest and died in the hospital.
Transportation and burial of foreign employees are the responsibility of employers in Saudi Arabia. However, instead of sending Palanisamy’s body to India, it was hastily buried in Shaqra cemetery on June 16.
The distraught family in Tamil Nadu came to know about the burial the following day. They immediately approached the Indian embassy seeking mortal remains.
Indian embassy officials worked for over two months with different official entities to exhume the body, finally.
Palanisamy’s body is expected to reach India soon, according to Indian community welfare officials
Last year also, Himachal Pradesh driver, Sanjeev Kumar’s death in Jizan province caught attention after his wife moved to the Delhi High Court seeking help to retrieve her husband’s mortal remains. She claimed that her husband was wrongly buried in Saudi Arabia.
