The body of nurse Jacintha Saldanha, who committed suicide in London, was brought here from Mumbai by a Jet Airways flight on Sunday. It was shifted to an ambulance for being taken by road to Shirva, Udupi, where the burial will be held at the cemetery of Our Lady of Health Church on Monday.
Jacintha’s husband Ben Barboza, and their teenaged children, Junal and Lisha, came by the same flight.
The family members did not speak to the media mobbing them. They were rushed into waiting cars. At least 70 mediapersons from India, the U.K. and Australia had been waiting at the airport to get pictures of the coffin and to speak to Jacintha’s family.
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At Shirva, parish priest Stany Tauro told journalists that prayers would be offered at Mr. Barboza’s house around 2.30 p.m. on Monday. The body would be brought to the church at 3 p.m. and the funeral mass held at 4 p.m. The bishop of the Udupi diocese, the Most Rev. Dr. Gerald Isaac Lobo, would offer the funeral mass.
Sadananda Gowda visits family
Meanwhile, the former Karnataka Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda, visited Jacintha’s mother-in-law Carmine Barboza at Shirva and offered his condolences.
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Speaking to presspersons, he said Jacintha’s end came close on the heels of the death of Savita Halappanavar from Belgaum, who had been working as a dentist in Ireland, following denial of abortion. He said he would talk to Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar on the need for ensuring proper protection to people from Karnataka who were working abroad. Jacintha’s family was upset at misleading reports appearing in a section of the media, Mr. Gowda said.
Jacintha (46), who hailed from Mangalore, was working as a nurse in King Edward VII Hospital in London. She committed suicide after becoming a victim of a hoax call by two DJs from an Australian radio station enquiring about the condition of the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge Kate William, who was receiving treatment in the hospital for acute morning sickness.