Months after it remained in the mortuary of the Mahatma Gandhi Government Hospital here, body of a woman who died in Saudi Arabia last year was handed over to her parents on Monday upon completion of postmortem and DNA test.
Twenty-seven-year-old Immaculate, a BCA graduate hailing from Thanjavur who worked as a house maid in Dhamam, died in May last year.
The woman’s parents received a call from Dhamam informing them of their daughter’s death without citing the cause of death or conveying any other information taking them by surprise.
As attempts by the parents to get in touch with the house owner in Dhamam and the Tiruchi agent did not fructify, they approached the Thanjavur Collector to seek information about their daughter and the news of her death through the Indian embassy.
They later approached the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court following which the news of their daughter’s death came to be confirmed.
On the court’s direction, the body was sent to Tiruchi by a Sri Lankan Airlines flight in early January and sent to the mortuary of the Government Hospital where it remained from then on.
Suspecting foul play in the death and having doubts whether the body sent was that of his daughter, the woman’s father Anthony Yagappa approached the High Court.
On court’s order, a re-post mortem was done at the Government Hospital. A DNA test proved that the woman was indeed the daughter of Anthony Yagappa, police sources said.
Consequently, the body was handed over to Mr. Yagappa at the hospital in the presence of the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Saroj Kumar Thakur and senior medical officers as per the court orders.