Expat’s death: Firm refutes allegations

Manama : Following the death of an Indian worker here yesterday, his company officials denied any kind of mistreatment meted out to him. They rebuffed the allegations that the carpenter, Divakaran Achary, died due to the company officials’ mistreatment, which also allegedly caused the deterioration of his health.

The 58-year-old man died at 1.30am yesterday after failing to recover from a stroke. His family and friends are blaming the company for mistreating him, as they did not allow him to go to India for treatment to recover from depression.

Meanwhile, the officials informed that his leave applications were never rejected. His family members claim that for four consecutive years, the company did not allow him to take annual leave. “Thus he became depressed and stopped taking medications.”  

“For the past four years he had not been allowed to go for his annual vacation. This led Divakaran to depression. He later suffered a stroke and was admitted to the ICU at Salmaniya Medical Complex,” said Pramjith, a relative of Divakaran.

Divakaran was admitted to the hospital on June 30 after suffering a stroke. He also suffered organ failure and his wife was preparing to fly to Bahrain to be an organ donor. 

However, speaking to DT News, a company representative said that Divakaran was never mistreated. “It was his own choice not to go to India. He said that he had a lot of debts so he could not go there.” 

An Indian Embassy official confirmed that the embassy had never received any complaints from Divakaran about the company. First Secretary Meera Sisodia said that the embassy is doing the needful to repatriate Divakaran’s mortal remains to his hometown.