This story is from February 16, 2020

Rajasthan: Body of Jhunjhunu man stuck in Baghdad since January 28

Body of a 45-year-old man from Nar Singhani village in Jhunjhunu district, who died on January 28, is since then stuck in Baghdad, where he worked, due to the complex formalities of the police and judiciary in Baghdad. The family of the deceased has been running from pillar to post to get his mortal remains but in vain.
Rajasthan: Body of Jhunjhunu man stuck in Baghdad since January 28
Bhanwar Singh Shekhawat
KOTA: Body of a 45-year-old man from Nar Singhani village in Jhunjhunu district, who died on January 28, is since then stuck in Baghdad, where he worked, due to the complex formalities of the police and judiciary in Baghdad. The family of the deceased has been running from pillar to post to get his mortal remains but in vain.
While the state Congress general secretary Charmesh Sharma from Bundi was in communication with the Indian embassy in Baghdad to bring back eight other Indian youths from Bundi stuck in Iraq, the embassy officials informed him of the dead body of one Bhanwar Singh Shekhawat from Jhunjhunu district, kept in the mortuary of a hospital in Baghdad.
Following that, Sharma submitted a memorandum in this connection to Bundi district collector, who on February 13, shot an email to personal secretary to the Prime Minister of India, requesting to initiate efforts to bring Shekhawat’s mortal remains back to his home in Rajasthan.
Bhanwar Singh Shekhawat had been working in Iraq’s capital Baghdad for last nine years and was to return home very soon due to his ill health. “I have also mailed a copy of the memorandum to the President’s office, Prime Minister’s office and the foreign ministry and have demanded high-level efforts to bring back Shekhawat’s mortal remains,” Charmesh Sharma told TOI. Depriving a body of last rites at home is a violation of international law and human rights that the Iraq government is committed to and now the government of India should immediately intervene in the matter and register protest to the ambassador of Iraq in India, Sharma said.
“We were informed of the death on the same day (on January 28) and we immediately fulfilled all the formalities to bring the body to India, including submission of the papers demanded by the concerned officials in Baghdad, depositing penalty of US $1,000 but many days have passed and yet the body has not been sent,” deceased Bhanwar Singh Shakhwat’s brother-in-law Vikram Singh told TOI on phone. Earlier, the judge of the local court in Baghdad refused to grant permission to send the body but following submission of required documents, he agreed for permission prior to submission of passport of deceased Shekhawat which was under the custody of local police, said Vikram Singh and added that when the police was contacted for the passport, they said to release the passport through court where the same judge reportedly again raised objection. “We wanted Bhanwar Singh to return earlier so that he could be given proper treatment as he had been ill, but we were suddenly informed of his demise on January 28,” he added.
“I have tweeted the complaint in this connection to concerned officials’ twitter handles and have spoken to the Indian embassy in Baghdad, but still the body has not reached here,” Singh added. The official at Indian embassy in Baghdad on phone said that they had no objection in sending the body and are ready to even bear the expenses for its transportation, but the judge at Baghdad court is raising objections at every step.
[Pic – copy of the letter by Bundi district collector to personal secretary to the Prime Minister of India with the request to bring Bhanwar Singh Shakhewat’s body to homeland
2. Deceased Bhanwar Singh, who had been working in Iraq for last 9 years and died on January 28 this year.]
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