Efforts on to bring Hindu man's body from Saudi Arabia after exhumation: Himachal CM

SHIMLA: Efforts are being made to bring back the mortal remains of a Hindu man hailing from Himachal Pradesh who was wrongly buried in Saudi Arabia as per Muslim custom, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said in the Assembly on Saturday.

Speaking in the Assembly on the last day of the Budget Session, Thakur said the state government took up the matter with the Centre and the Saudi Arabia Consulate General after it was raised in the House on March 16.

The chief minister said that he had also personally talked to the external affairs minister.

Raising the matter in the Assembly, Una MLA Satpal Singh Raizada said Sanjeev Kumar Sharma died due to cardiac arrest on January 24 in Saudi Arabia where he had been working for three years.

His mortal remains were buried "due to a mistake committed by the official translator of Indian Consulate, Jeddah, who wrongly mentioned his religion as "Muslim' in the death certificate".

Thakur said that the Consulate General of India in Jeddah informed through an e-mail that "we have taken up the matter with the local Foreign Office, Governorate Office, Jijan and other local authorities to exhume and repatriate the mortal remains of late Mr.

Sanjeev Kumar Sharma at the earliest. " "Officer of Consulate are on visit to Governorate, Jizan to expedite exhumation of mortal remains," it added.

The e-mail further stated that the Consulate General had also taken up the matter with the local foreign office to instruct the authorities concerned to probe into the circumstances leading to the burial without any information even to Sharma's sponsor.