Don Sridhar Dhanapalan's daughter seeks Madras HC help to get his body from Cambodia

Chennai: The daughter of Sridhar Dhanapalan, who died in Cambodia last week, has approached the Madras high court to direct the state government to help her to bring his body from Cambodia to India to give a decent cremation.

After an urgent hearing was sought, Justice M.S.Ramesh directed the government advocate to get instructions from the authorities concerned and posted to October 10, further hearing of the case.

In her petition, she sought a direction to the Kancheepuram Superintendent of Police and District Collector to issue a positive communication to the Indian high commission in Cambodia, so that they could take steps to bring the body of her father to India.

She submitted that her father was an Indian citizen and several cases were pending against him. A magistrate court in Kancheepuram had also declared him as an absconding accused. On October 4, her brother Santhosh, studying in UK called and informed her that our father's cook informed him that their father was admitted to a hospital in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in a critical condition. When they rushed to Cambodia, they found their father dead. The hospital authorities issued a death certificate stating that he had died due to cardiac arrest. As he was not in possession of a valid passport, which has been impounded by the Enforcement Directorate, they approached the Indian high commission in Cambodia to help them to bring his body to India. But the officials said they could process their request only if the Kancheepuram police and collector gives a positive communication for the transfer since most of the cases pending against him originates from the district. When they rushed back to India and gave a written request to the two officials, they did not respond. Therefore, she filed the present petition, she added.