By IANS
New Delhi : The central government Tuesday told the Delhi High Court that it would fly the body of a slain Indian chef from Italy to the country, but only hand it over to his widow after she pays the Rs.300,000 expenses it would entail.
The government counsel told Justice B.D. Ahmed of Delhi High Court that the body of Ram Chander, an expatriate Indian chef who was murdered in Italy last November, was lying in a mortuary in that country for the past six months. The body is being flown to New Delhi on May 24, he informed the court.
After hearing the arguments, Justice Ahmed disposed of the matter asking the Ministry of External Affairs to "act according to the law".
Counsel for the government told the court that the authorities would be spending around Rs.300,000 to bring the body to the country. It would be booked Wednesday by a private airliner.
The counsel said that according to the rules the family members of the victim would have to meet the transportation cost before claiming it.
Chander's 38-year-old widow, Anita Gupta, who lives in Noida in Uttar Pradesh, has pleaded before the court that she is poor and cannot afford to pay the cost. She also said that she did not have a job for the past several months.
Countering her pleas, the government counsel said Chander was drawing a handsome salary in Italy, where he owned a BMW car in which he was found murdered.
Gupta had approached the court last Tuesday seeking help in getting the body from Italy.
In her application, Gupta, the mother of an eight-year-old boy, said the government had sent a demand letter to her for deposit of the money before Thursday.
Chander, a chef in an Italian bar-cum-restaurant in Riggio-Emilia, at a distance of nearly five hours train ride from Milan, was murdered on Nov 11 last year.
The body was lying in a local mortuary at Riggio-Emilia, Gupta said, adding that her husband was strangulated to death and she came to know of his murder through Internet.
Gupta said: "I spoke to my husband last on his 44th birthday, on Nov 3 last year. He used to send me and my eight-year-old son our living expenses between the 10th and 15th of every month. So, when we didn't receive anything, I called him on his two mobile phones daily till Nov 30 but there was no response."
"It was only on March 30 that I found out about my husband on the Internet. I got the landline number of restaurant Oceania Pizzeria where he worked and I learnt he had been murdered," she said.