The Jorhat district administration a fresh order extended the time for preserving the body of the British tourist to another 72 hours.
A British tourist was found dead in a luxury cruise liner when it docked at Nimatighat in Assam’s Jorhat district on Friday morning.
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The body remains unclaimed in the morgue of the Jorhat Medical College and Hospital (JMCH), though 72 hours have elapsed till Monday morning.
The tourist, identified as 83-year-old Alastair Neil Macdonald, was part of a 24-member group from the UK.
They were travelling by the luxury cruise liner named Charaidew II on the Brahmaputra from Guwahati to tourist spots in Upper Assam along the river.
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Jorhat deputy commissioner Roshni A Korati said as per law, an unclaimed body needs to be disposed of after 72 hours of death by the police after the administration issues an order.
Also read: Death of British tourist in Jorhat exposes deplorable condition of JMCH morgue
Korati said as this particular case happens to be that of a foreign tourist, the extension was accorded.
The Jorhat DC has contacted the British Deputy High Commissioner in Kolkata over the matter and that there was a possibility of dispatching the body of the tourist to his country.
Korati said the British Deputy High Commissioner had told her that the Commission was trying to contact the relatives of the deceased and as per information received by the Commission, Macdonald had no immediate family members.
The deputy commissioner said in the next 72 hours it would be known whether the body of the British tourist would be sent back to the UK.
JMCH principal Prof Atul Baro said the embalmed body kept inside the portable cooling chamber accessed from the Tarajan crematorium at Jorhat by the district administration was in good condition.
The principal said doctors were monitoring the body kept inside this glass-covered cooling chamber.
It may be mentioned that the cold chamber inside the Jorhat Medical College and Hospital has remained non-functional for the past three years as a result of which the district administration had to borrow the cooling unit from Tarajan crematorium.