KEM fraternity to cremate doctor found dead on local.The funeral will take place at 4 pm at Shivaji Park crematorium. Cops may allow a friend who is keen to perform the last rites

 

The KEM gynecologist Dr Jyant Shantaram Rege, 59, who died a couple of days back on March 7 in Churchgate bound local train and whose body remain unclaimed will be cremated today at Shivaji Park in the presence of fellow KEM doctors and a handful of friends.

 

The funeral will see its cremation at 4 PM today.

 

It should be recalled here that his death had triggered a legal row, delaying his last rites. Since past couple of days post his death Rege’s  body remained unclaimed as he had severed ties with his relatives after his mother’s death. He died of a cardiac arrest while on his way to KEM hospital at Parel.

 

The 59-year-old doctor who served as gynecologist for 30 years with dedication was brought up and educated by his mother as his father Shantaram Rege died when he was as only 14 years old. He was living in his Matunga flat alone allotted to his late father. He never gave any priority to the institution of marriage as he thought his wife would ill treat his mother.

 

The doc fraternity at KEM had request on several occasion in the past to perform last rites but were refused by the police Police on legal grounds as only the blood relatives enjoy this right according to law.The police earlier found his distant uncle, an ENT surgeon, who had elicited his willingness to perform last rites of his nephew. But wary of the legal tangle shrouding Rege’s death he aborted his plans. ‘I’m an old man,’ said the octogenarian uncle, ‘and lack stamina to get into legal hassles’.

 

After a hectic deliberation between the KEM doctors and the police it was decided that Dr Rege’s friends will pay for the funeral and participate in the rituals, though the official entry in the crematorium register will say that the last rites were performed by the police in his family’s absence.