Centre, MP govt step in to get back techie body from Thailand

In absence of passport, a family in Madhya Pradesh is finding it difficult to travel to Thailand to bring back the mortal remains of a female member, a software engineer, who died in a road accident.

While the Centre has stepped in to help the bereaved family, the state government has assured it to make necessary arrangements to bring home the body of the woman, Pragya Paliwal (29), whose family resides in Chhatarpur district.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has also assured all assistance to the bereaved family.

"My sister Pragya Paliwal was a software engineer with a company in Bengaluru. Her roommate in Bengaluru informed us on Wednesday about her death in a road accident in Phuket (Thailand).

"She had reached Thailand on Tuesday for participating in the annual conference of a Hong Kong-based organisation, her brother S P Paliwal told reporters here on Thursday.

He said, "None of our family members have a passport. So, we have sought help of local Congress MLA Alok Chaturvedi and the district authorities.

Chaturvedi, in turn, sought help from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Jaishankar.

Chaturvedi said he has also informed Chief Minister Kamal Nath about the problem being faced by the family.

Meanwhile, in reply to a tweet, Jaishankar assured all help to the family.

Our Embassy @IndiainThailand (in Thailand) is in touch with the bereaved family and is providing all assistance in this difficult time, the minister tweeted.

Nath, in a tweet, said his government would make all necessary arrangements and also talk to the external affairs ministry in this regard.

Family members of the deceased met additional district collector Prem Singh to seek help.

Pragyas father and other family members had come to me. They said none in the family have a passport to travel to Thailand to bring back the mortal remains.

"We are helping them to get passports at the earliest and ready to extend any other help they require, said Singh.