Dubai cops close Sridevi case, body finally reaches Mumbai

More than two and a half days after superstar Sridevi’s body was found in a bathtub in her hotel room in Dubai, the UAE authorities closed the case and released the body to be taken to India.
The body, which was then embalmed, took off in a private chartered flight belonging to ADAG from Dubai airport at 7pm (IST) and landed in Mumbai at 9.30pm. A posse of policemen escorted the ambulance carrying Sridevi’s mortal remains to the Kapoors’ Lokhandwala residence.Police had to resort to a lathicharge to control the 2,000-odd-strong crowd gathered there.
The actor’s body will be kept at Celebration Club in Andheri from 9.30am to 12.30pm on Wednesday so that fans and celebrities can pay their respects, said a statement by the Kapoor family. Celebration Club is a stone’s throw from Green Acres Complex, where the actor lived.
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From Celebration Club, a funeral procession will leave for the Vile Parle Seva Samaj crematorium at 2pm and the last rites are expected to be performed around 3.30pm. On Monday, after the postmortem revealed the cause of death to be “accidental drowning” and the case was transferred to Dubai public prosecution, there was speculation that authorities may not release the body on Tuesday either.
Ambulance carring mortal remains of actress Sridevi arrives at her residence in Mumbai on Tuesday (PTI Photo)
However, ruling out any foul play and the need for re-investigation, authorities speeded up the process and closed the case by afternoon. As part of their investigation, Dubai police, before closing the case, questioned Boney again. A team also visited Jumeirah Emirates Towers, the hotel where Sridevi was found dead on Saturday.
According to a source, the team also collected CCTV footage from the hotel and scanned it to check how many times and when Sridevi went in and out. The hotel staff too was questioned.
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Consul general of India in Dubai, Navdeep Singh Suri, announced in the afternoon that Dubai police had handed over to the consulate and Sridevi’s family members letters for the release of the mortal remains of “the Indian cinema icon Sridevi Boney Kapoor” so that they could proceed with the embalming. The embalming certificate of Sridevi’s body given to the family also mentioned that the death was due to “accidental drowning”. It mentioned that there was “no infection disease”, a requirement for the body to be shipped or sent by air. While the death certificate issued by the forensic department mentioned Sridevi’s age as 53 years, the embalming certificate mentioned it as 52.
A source said that an ambulance had been kept ready at the mortuary even before the letters for repatriation of the body were received. The 13-seat Embraer chartered aircraft was kept ready in the cargo area of Dubai airport for the last two days. Earlier in the day, Boney’s son from his first marriage, Arjun, reached Dubai to be with his father and oversee the return journey, said a spokesperson for Yash Raj Films.
Back in Mumbai, expecting thousands of fans, police fortified security arrangements at Green Acres Complex as well as at the Juhu house of Anil Kapoor, Boney’s brother, on Tuesday night.
Tributes continued to pour in from veterans in the industry who were closely associated with her. Jeetendra, who was her co-star in several blockbusters in the ’80s, was quoted by a TV channel as saying, “An actor needs to be versatile, be good at dance, comedy and dramatics. With Sridevi, no one could fault her for any of her performances. She was always perfect.”
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