18 Oct 2017 | 05:18am IST
GHRC directs final rites for Bismarque
PANJIM: Goa Human Rights Commission (GHRC) on Tuesday directed the North Goa Collector to issue suitable directions in accordance with the law to dispose the body of social activist Bismarque Dias which has been preserved in the morgue at Goa Medical College since November 7, 2015. GHRC said that the body cannot be kept in the morgue for an indefinite period.
PANJIM: Goa Human Rights Commission (GHRC) on Tuesday directed the North Goa Collector to issue suitable directions in accordance with the law to dispose the body of social activist Bismarque Dias which has been preserved in the morgue at Goa Medical College since November 7, 2015. GHRC said that the body cannot be kept in the morgue for an indefinite period.
In April this year the North Goa Collector had submitted before GHRC that the Parish Priest of St Estevam had informed that he cannot carry out the final rites on the body without an NOC from the relatives.
Advocate Aires Rodrigues in his complaint to the GHRC in March this year had pointed out that since November 2015, Dias’ body, which was found at St Estevam has been kept in the morgue.
Rodrigues had also drawn the attention of the GHRC that the Supreme Court had held that even in death a person has dignity and deserves to be treated with human dignity it being a basic human right.
Dais’ family has not taken possession of the body and has been demanding a thorough probe into the death case stating it was a murder. Following a court order, Crime Branch has registered the death as murder and is investigating the case as a murder.
Crime Branch’s plea before the court for a polygraph test on two of the key witnesses was rejected last month. Both the witnesses were seen with Dias at St Estevam Island on the day he disappeared.
