Maersk captain's body stuck in paperwork

PUNE: The uncertainty over the arrival of mortal remains of deceased captain Dharam Parwani (38) remained on Thursday, 10 days after he passed away on board a Maersk ship in the Pacific on December 18. Reason: the company appointed by Maersk to transport his body is yet to finish the paperwork.
“The body will be repatriated as soon as the required formalities are complied with,” Maersk said in a statement without elaborating.The company did not respond to queries from TOI as to why the paperwork was not initiated when the body was de-boarded in Hawaii on December 22 or when the captain passed away.
Maersk said Parwani passed away on December 18 but did not respond to what took them four days to turn the ship back to Hawaii or to the source — Mexico. “We identified options for safely bringing the mortal remains to land as soon as possible and made the decision to divert the vessel to Hawaii. The mortal remains of the deceased captain were successfully brought to land in Honolulu, Hawaii, on Saturday, December 22,” the company said in a statement.
“The company official in touch with us told us this (Thursday) evening that the paperwork would be done, and the body would be transported by December 29 (Hawaii time),” the captain’s brother, Deepak Parwani, told TOI. He added the Indian consulate in San Francisco has assured action as soon as the paper reaches them.
The medical formalities after Parwani’s death were completed soon after December 22 and his body had been lying in a morgue in Hawaii since then.
“A medical examination was conducted by the local authorities in Hawaii, and the cause of the death was determined to have been a heart attack,” the company said in the statement.
It did not respond to specific questions on if it had completed its own internal investigation or what led to the heart attack and if the “food poisoning,” indicated by Parwani in his message to the family 2-3 days before December 18 caused his death.