Teacher finally gets engineer son's body from Iran

Varanasi, Aug 16 (UNI) A teacher from Deoria district of Uttar Pradesh, after a 26-day wait, today received the body of his marine engineer son Subodh, who died in Iran on July 21.

Twenty-five-year old marine engineer Subodh Tiwari, left his native place Barhaj in Deoria on April 25 for work in Iranian capital, Tehran.

On July 21, Subodh's father Narsingh Tiwari got a call from his son's friend Bulendu, also working in Tehran, about the young marine engineer's demise. The crestfallen father rushed to the national capital two days later to urge the government to arrange for the speedy passage of his son's body to India.

The agonising wait for his son's mortal remains, however, ended with a coffin arriving by flight from Iran on August eight. The family immediately rushed by road to Deoria for the last rites of the young marine engineer.

The family from East UP, however, was in for another rude shock, as on opening the sealed coffin in Deoria, it was found that the body inside was not Subodh's, but that of 22-year-old Iranian Fatima.

''I went to the Station House Officer of Barhaj Police Station, Jai Vijay Singh and told about the entire thing. But instead of help, what I got from the cop was abuses and a threat that I will have to face dire consequences,'' Narsingh told newspersons here at the Varanasi Airport today.

''Attempts by me to secure help from District Magistrate of Deoria also fell flat,'' he added.

The ill-fated family returned with the stranger's body to Varanasi on August 13, where the authorities at the Airport refused boarding the coffin on the New Delhi bound flight, on the pretext that the coffin's seal was broken.

Following the timely help by District Magistrate of Varanasi Rajiv Agrawal, the coffin was sealed in presence of government doctors and boarded on an Indian Airlines flight to New Delhi on August 14.

The coffin containing Subodh's embalmed body arrived by IA plane IC-806 at the Airport here today.

Before leaving for Deoria for the last rites of his son, Narsingh could not hide the anger against the official machinery which not only led to delay in his son's corpse coming to him, but also resulted in invectives being cast on the family by an irresponsible 'cop' at his native place.

UNI ARS RP HS1926