Don Sridhar Dhanapalan’s daughter seeks help to bring his body to India

CHENNAI: Dhanalakshmi, daughter of Tamil Nadu’s most wanted don Sridhar Dhanapalan, who had allegedly committed suicide in Cambodia, has moved the Madras High Court pleading for a decent cremation of her father.She filed a petition praying for a direction to the Kancheepuram district Police Superintendent and the District Collector to issue a communication to the Indian Embassy in Cambodia to take steps to bring her father’s body to India.

When the matter was mentioned on Monday morning on urgent basis, Justice M S Ramesh directed the government advocate to get instructions from the authorities concerned and posted it for further hearing on Tuesday.According to Dhanalakshmi, her father was an Indian citizen. Several cases initiated by the police and the Directorate of Enforcement, were pending against him.

In fact, a Magistrate court in Kancheepuram had also declared him as an absconding offender.

On October 4, her brother Santhosh, studying in UK, called her. He said Sridhar’s cook had called him to inform that Sridhar was admitted in a hospital in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in a critical condition. She rushed to Cambodia, but found her father dead. The hospital’s certificate stated he had died due to cardiac arrest, Dhanalakshmi said.

As Sridhar did not have a valid passport, since it had been impounded by the ED, she had approached the Indian Embassy in Cambodia to help her to bring the body to India. But the officials at the commission said that they could process the request only if the Kancheepuram police and Collector gives a positive communication for the transfer, since most of the cases pending against her father originate from the district.

Subsequently, she and her brother rushed back to India and made a written request to both the officials as per the High Commission’s directive.As there was no response, she filed the present petition.

The body of her father, which is presently kept in the mortuary of the hospital, would deteriorate and decompose if subjected to further delay, she contended.As a citizen of India, her father is entitled to a decent cremation as guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution, she claimed and prayed the court for a suitable direction.

The missing don

Several cases initiated by the police and the ED are pending against Sridhar Dhanapalan. A court in Kancheepuram had declared him as an absconding offender