The body of a deceased Indian worker has been lying in the morgue of Dammam Central Hospital for nine months due to delays in the processing of paperwork, while his family in a small village in India undergoes both financial and social hardship because of the failure to repatriate his body. Indian expatriate T. Nara Goud, 45, a Hindu from Timmakpally village of Kamareddy Mandal in Nizamabad district arrived in the Kingdom last June to take up employment as a cattle feeder in Na'ariya, 350 km from Dammam. Four days after his arrival in the Kingdom, Goud's body was found in the desert and a death certificate was issued stating that he had died of cardiac arrest. The body was placed in the morgue of Dammam Central Hospital awaiting the processing of paperwork which would allow repatriation of Goud's remains to his home in India. That was nine months ago. During these nine months, Goud's family in his village in India have undergone financial and social hardships because of traditions governing funeral rites. According to Hindu tradition the wife of a dead man cannot leave her home until last rites known as “karma kanda” have been performed for her husband, and close male relatives of the dead man cannot shave their beard or cut their hair. For the past nine months, Goud's brothers have not shaved nor have they cut their hair and his wife, Bhoo Laxmi, has not stepped out of her small village house. The family has also suffered financially from the failure to repatriate Goud's body for burial in India. Goud's neighbor Irfan, who works in Jeddah, told Saudi Gazette that the family is already in debt having spent around SR8,200 to secure a visa for Goud to come to work in the Kingdom, and they are paying interest on this amount every month to the bank. Furthermore, because she is confined to her house in the village, Goud's wife has lost her job adding to the family's financial woes. Saudi Gazette contacted the Indian Embassy in Riyadh to ask for an explanation for the delay in repatriating the dead man's body and was told by S.K. Rajorio, the Embassy Community Welfare Wing Attache, that the delay was due to the fact that documentation from the police took a long time. He said that the death was registered with the embassy on Oct. 5, 2009 and since that time the embassy has been in correspondence with the Na'ariya police station requesting reports and clearance. Rajorio explained that Goud died suddenly only four days after entering the Kingdom, and that matters had been complicated by the fact that the police were treating the death as suspicious because of the way in which the body was found which had prolonged the case. As to why the Indian embassy had not been more active in finding a speedy solution to the case, Rajorio pointed out that the embassy has no offices or centers or full time personnel in the Eastern Province, and that embassy officials could not visit Na'ariya police station as it is very far from Dammam city. He said that upon learning of the death, the embassy immediately assigned Naz Wakkam, a well-known social worker of the Navodaya cultural wing in the Eastern Province, to inquire about the deceased and to collect information on behalf of embassy officials. Rajorio admitted that the repatriation of the remains of a deceased expatriate to India would usually take a maximum of three to four weeks if all the necessary documents were on hand, and that there were cases in which the body had been repatriated in only one week. Rajorio confirmed that three days ago the embassy issued a NOC to repatriate Goud's body to India and issued a letter of authorization to Wakkam to complete the necessary documentation and procedures on behalf of the Indian Embassy. As a result, Rajorio expects Goud's remains to be repatriated to his village in India in about one week. Local media in India have highlighted the condition of Goud's family and the issue has been raised in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly where a member of criticized the state government and its Non-Resident Indian affairs wing for delaying the case.
