Madurai: Almost a week after seafarer Nishanth Uirthanathan’s body was brought ashore in Oman and shifted to a hospital, his family is still waiting for the mortal remains to reach India. The repatriation was delayed after documents wrongly recorded him as Hindu instead of Christian.
Nishanth, 35, from Thoothukudi, died aboard MT Celestial while serving as second officer on the vessel. His body was later brought ashore in Oman and shifted to a hospital, after being preserved onboard using cold-water bottles.
Loyola Antony, uncle of Nishanth’s wife Saropin, said an Indian Embassy official in Oman contacted the family on June 18 and said the mortal remains could reach Thiruvananthapuram airport by Thursday evening. “The embassy even shared flight details with us, but the transport was cancelled after errors were found in the documents,” Antony said. He said the death certificate and passport cancellation papers were among the documents shared with the family. The autopsy report also did not clearly mention the cause of death, Antony said. “It only says clot in the brain, but we still don’t know what happened to him onboard,” he said.
Saropin, 30, has a 10-month-old baby and a three-year-old child. “She wants her children to know what happened to their father,” Antony said. The family, which had only seen videos from the media about conditions onboard the vessel, is now waiting for an update from the embassy, which has promised to expedite the process. Officials indicated the remains could reach India by the weekend or Monday.
Amalraj Rodrigues, a Canada-based volunteer with UNPAF who helped the family approach DG Shipping and Indian Embassy, said compensation will be challenging because Romana Ship Management Company, which appointed him as second officer, is not accessible by phone and its registered address is not available. He said Romana was not listed among DG Shipping-approved companies and the recruiting agent had not directly contacted the family on the case. The family member said third-party callers from the Philippines claimed to represent the company’s technical section. “By Thursday evening, the agent said he did not know the company and denied involvement with Romana,” Amalraj added.
