S.D. Moorthy, consul for labor welfare at the Indian Consulate in Jeddah, told Arab News on Wednesday that Pasupathipillai Sivanandan, 65, who was working as a storekeeper at the Hayat Hotel in Jazan, was married to an Indian woman.

“There are no claimants for the remains from Sri Lanka,” the diplomat said. 

According to medical reports, Sivanandan died of cardiac arrest while he was resting in his apartment after work. He arrived in the Kingdom 20 years ago.

Sivanandan’s wife and two children live in Chennai.

“The Indian consulate has also got a request from the Sri Lankan Consulate in Jeddah for permission to transport the body to Chennai as pleaded by his wife Rukmani Devi,” Moorthy said, adding that his consulate had taken up the matter with the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi for approval.

Sri Lankan Consul General Athambawa Uthumalebbe told Arab News that the dead worker did not have any relatives back in Sri Lanka.

“There was no one to receive his body in Colombo,” the consul general said.

He added that the body would be ferried as soon as the necessary documents were processed for clearance from the airport.

Uthuma Lebbe also thanked the Indian Consulate in Jeddah for its cooperation to repatriate the body to India in deference to the wishes of Sivanandan’s family members. “It is an example of excellent bilateral relations between the two countries,” he noted.

Arab News learned that the management of the hotel where Sivanandan was working is currently making arrangements to settle his salary dues, which will be sent to the bereaved family in India through the Sri Lankan mission.