No DNA report, body in mortuary for 2 yrs

CHANDIGARH: Ludhiana resident Dalbir Singh’s efforts to put to rest all uncertainties shrouding his brother Jaswinder Singh’s death have hit a dead-end. For almost two years, Jaswinder Singh’s body has been lying in a mortuary in Delhi after being flown in from the UAE following his death in a cylinder blast.

File photo

Saurabh Malik
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, November 29

Ludhiana resident Dalbir Singh’s efforts to put to rest all uncertainties shrouding his brother Jaswinder Singh’s death have hit a dead-end.

For almost two years, Jaswinder Singh’s body has been lying in a mortuary in Delhi after being flown in from the UAE following his death in a cylinder blast.

Whether or not to cremate the charred body is the question haunting the family, which has not received a DNA report from the UAE.

An order by the Punjab and Haryana High Court to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on procuring the DNA report from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the UAE had kindled the family’s hope of establishing beyond doubt the victim’s identity. But the directions were not complied with, forcing them to move the High Court again for contempt proceedings against Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale and another respondent.

“Let notice be issued to show cause as to why proceedings for contempt be not initiated,” Justice Augustine George Masih asserted, taking up Dalbir Singh’s plea.

The ordeal for the family began with a phone call from one Hardeep Mohd that Jaswinder Singh had died in a gas cylinder blast, along with three more Indians, at their temporary accommodation on November 27, 2015, and that his body “has turned into mud”.

Lawyer Deepak Kundu said Jaswinder Singh was working at a crusher in Ummul Farjan, 50 km from Al-Kharj province. The mortal remains, brought in February 2017, were lying at the IGI airport.

He said DNA samples of the families of all four victims were taken before the bodies were flown in. But a team from India visiting the province later found certain discrepancies, including the date of occurrence.

Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain said a notice was issued way back in March 2017, but the matter was adjourned. Setting a three-month deadline in April for providing the DNA report, Justice Jain had said the respondent was duty-bound to get it from the UAE authorities.

The case will now come up in January.