My father has the right to a decent cremation as an Indian citizen: Don Dhanapalan's daughter

Daughter of absconding don Sridhar Dhanapalan- Dhanalakshmi- sought the help of the Indian government to bring her father's body back to India. Citing that as an Indian citizen, her father has the right to get a decent cremation, she moved the Madras High Court, pleading for a direction to the Kancheepuram district Police Superintendent and the District Collector to issue a communication to the Indian Embassy in Cambodia to process the exit of her father's body.

According to a report by the New Indian Express, on Monday, justice M S Ramesh directed the government advocate to get instructions from the authorities concerned and posted the matter for further hearing on Tuesday. 

It is to be noted that several cases are pending against him in Kancheepuram and that he has been declared to be an absconding offender by a magistrate court in the city. Incidentally, on October 4, Dhanalakshmi's brother called her and said that Sridhar's cook called him and said that their father was critical. As she rushed to Cambodia, Khema Clinic of Excellence authorities told her that he had died due to cardiac arrest. According to the death certificate issued by the hospital, Sridhar was brought to the hospital at 10:05 pm from a hotel for treatment and passed away at 10:35 pm.

Since Sridhar did not have a valid passport, she approached the Indian Embassy in Cambodia and sought its help to transfer the body to India. However, the officials there said that this could only be done if the police and the collector gave a positive communication for the transfer since most of the cases pending against him originated from the district.

Both the siblings rushed back to India and sought the help of both the officials, but failed to get a response from them. This is when they filed a petition in the HC. Dhanalakshmi contented that if there was any further delay, the body of her father, which has been kept in the mortuary of the hospital in Cambodia, will start decomposing. She invoked Article 21 of the Constitution and claimed that her father, as an Indian citizen, had the right for a decent cremation.

According to a report by the Deccan Chronicle, she also claimed that the family did not know of the whereabouts of Sridhar until her brother got a call from the cook Ddevendhran, who stayed with the don.  

[Read: Family feud did not spare even the 'Dawood Ibrahim of South', commits suicide]

• tamil nadu
• south
• don
• sridhar dhanapalan
• crime
• dawood of tamil nadu
• kancheepuram