Dubai, May 1 (IANS): The body of an expatriate Indian has been lying in a morgue in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the last two years as his family members refused to claim his body, media reported Wednesday.
Bharat Kumar Behra, 37, from the Indian state of Odisha, died reportedly due to a cardiac arrest in June 2012 and his body has been lying in the morgue of Shaikh Khalifa Hospital in Abu Dhabi ever since, Gulf News reported Wednesday.
Behra was initially reported missing by his family, and his body was identified by an Indian embassy official in October 2013.
Later, the embassy followed the case for repatriation and contacted Behra's family in Odisha.
"We have contacted the family several times. But they are neither willing to accept the body nor give us permission to cremate it," the news report quoted an embassy official as saying.
The official said the family is living in denial and is refusing to believe that Behra is dead.
The official said the family maintained that the body could be of somebody else.
Behra worked as a technician at Pivot Engineering and General Contracting Company in Abu Dhabi, the report said.
He died following a heart attack after he collapsed on the roadside.
The embassy also tried bringing Behra's family to the UAE, but to no avail.