Woman moves court to get daughters body from UK

A 69-YEAR-OLD woman has begun a legal battle in Kerala to bring back the body of her daughter who died in the UK two months ago....

A 69-YEAR-OLD woman has begun a legal battle in Kerala to bring back the body of her daughter who died in the UK two months ago under mysterious circumstances.

Mozhipparambil Lilly Francis,a native of Thrissur,has pleaded with the High Court that the body of her daughter Mini,who worked as a nurse at the district hospital in Salisbury,be flown back to Kerala. She has asked the court to prevent son-in-law Angelo Francis from cremating the body in the UK. Lilly has alleged in the court that Angelo wanted to obtain a resident visa by cremating his wife in the UK. She has said cremation is against Christian practice.

Acting upon her complaint,the High Court on Wednesday directed the Ministry of External Affairs to inform the UK Government,through the British High Commission,to initiate necessary steps to thwart the cremation of the body until June 2. The court,which also issued a notice to the Funeral Director,Salisbury,posted the case for next week.

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Lillys advocate Shajan C George said the court considered the precedent set by a British court in 1994 which had issued a writ on a human rights violation in Kuwait. Otherwise,he added,the court had no power to issue writ to a foreign government.

According to Lilly,a widow,her youngest daughter Mini,29,had been working with the Salisbury hospital for the past five years. She got married to Angelo,a native of Thrissur,in 2007. Mini returned to work in the UK a week after the wedding. A few months later,she took her unemployed husband,a BTech,to the UK and arranged a job for him as a technician in the sterilisation wing of the hospital.

Some time later their relationship soured and Mini was allegedly stopped from even meet her brother who was also working in the UK. The last time Mini came to India was in November 2008 for delivery. On February 22,she flew back to the UK as directed by her husband,leaving her baby boy with her in-laws in Thrissur.

According to Minis brother Jose,On March 21,Mini had complained of harassment. A few hours later,Angelo called us to inform that Mini had been hospitalised in a critical condition after she developed chest infection. Later,we came to know about her death.

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During the past two months,Angelo and his family kept telling us that the body would be sent back to Kerala. Angelo had even collected money from Keralites there to meet the expenses. Now,we have come to know that he is planning to cremate the body there on May 29. Hence,we moved the court, he said.