The Madras High Court today ordered issue of notice to the Union Government on a petition seeking a probe into the mysterious death of one Anbarasu belonging to Salem in Tamil Nadu and praying for a direction to authorities to bring back his body from Dubai.
Justice KK Sasidharan before whom the petition filed by Anbarasu's brother came up, ordered issue of notice to K.Gunasekharan, Senior Counsel for Central Government to get instructions from the government before Tuesday.
R Anbarasu had joined a Tanzanian flagged ship M.V.AL MAZED H as crew member on May this year. He was recruited by a Travel Agent Aavishka in Mumbai and was send through a company called Oceanic Star Shipping Private Limited at Mumbai. He used to contact his family once a fortnight and was on contract for a year.
On October 2 his parents received a call from the company stating that Anbarasu has been sent back but no proper reasons were assigned by the firm. His brother R Raviselvan was waiting at Chennai Airport to receive him but could not find him in the scheduled flight.
Subsequently the next day, his parents received a phone call from Sharjah Airport stating that he was admitted in Hospital.
An Indian National, who works in a hospital where Anbarasu was admitted, informed the parents that he died in a Kuwait Hospital on October 6 and his body was lying in the mortuary.
The family did not get any response when they contacted the agents and shipping company, it was alleged.
Despite representations, authorities failed to discharge their duties to probe the matter and bring the body to India, the petitioner submitted.
A representation was sent to the Shipping Ministry and the Ministry vide a letter dated October 15 sought the help of Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs to bring the body.
But there was no response even after that following which a petition was filed.
