RIYADH: The family of an Indian worker who died 15 years ago received a compensation payment of SR75,000 by court order, the Indian Embassy announced here on Wednesday.
A court in Jubail ordered the insurer Tawuniya (formerly National Company for Cooperative Insurance) to pay the compensation to the next of kin of Mohammed Zulficar, who died in a road accident along with other Indians in February 1993.
The other men who died in the crash were listed as Mohammed Ariff and Ahamed Ali from Banglore. Compensation is expected ot be granted to the relatives of these men once they are traced.
Saudi motorist Khalid Al-Bhuyani, who collided his car with the one carrying the Indians, also died in the accident. The delay in assigning compensation has been attributed to difficulties in identifying the victims of the accident and then tracking down their next of kin.
“The case has been prolonging for a long time since the police could not establish the proper identity of the deceased,” an embassy official told Arab News. He added that representatives from the embassy had appeared at 13 hearings pertaining to this case over the past 15 years.
Once the men were identified, the relatives had to be tracked down, which added to the delay. Even the relatives of the Saudi driver were only recently found.
Zulficar had come to the Kingdom in 1993 as a 22-year-old laborer. The embassy is processing the payment procedures with Tawuniya for the other two victims.
