Housekeeper’s death: Kin write to Vayalar Ravi

The relatives of Kochiite Mary Joseph, who died in Kuwait under mysterious circumstances, have written to Union Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi to unravel the truth behind her death. They said that Mary was perfectly healthy when she went to Kuwait and  alleged foul play in the whole affair.


According to her son-in-law Basheer F M, they even did not know where her death happened and where her body is currently kept.


“We got a call from Kuwait on Thursday from a person called Kavitha saying that my mother-in-law died on July 22 (Sunday) owing to high blood pressure and heart attack,” Basheer said.



He alleged that the agents did not even care to inform them when she was terminally ill. “Though she died last Sunday, we got the information only on Thursday. It was later known that she was terminally ill. But they did not inform us of her critical condition,” he said.


Basheer said that the suspicion increased when they kept on changing the names of the hospitals where her body was kept. “At the outset, they told that her body was kept at the Sarwania hospital. Then they changed names of the hospitals twice,” he complained. Though a post-mortem was conducted, Mary’s sisters, who are also working in Kuwait, are yet to identify the body. “We have not received any information regarding it. They are yet to contact us,” they said.


According to Mary’s relatives, she went to Kuwait on June 19 for housekeeping through agents Chandran and V K Kumar.


“After reaching Kuwait she contacted us through internet telephony twice. In her second call to her son Sylvester, she complained that the work was too hectic and that she was finding it difficult to cope with it,” said Basheer.


“According to the agreement signed between Mary and the agency which took her to Kuwait, she was to get a mobile phone with a SIM card. But it was not provided to her. Owing to it, we presume that she could not contact us in an emergency,” he said.


With the help of a few relatives in Kuwait, the relatives of Mary gathered the information that she was ill and bed-ridden in her sponsor’s house for two days. She was later shifted to her agent’s place. But it aroused suspicion when Mary’s agents told the relatives that she died in a police vehicle when she was being taken to the hospital.