Luv Sharma, 35, died aboard the ship 'Bahri Bulk' when it was anchored at Dammam on February 24. He was working as chief officer on the ship since November 2018, according to NDTV.

The ship had come from Brazil carrying cargo of wheat. Upon berthing, three officers had entered the hold and all of them collapsed and were hospitalised, Luv Sharma died. Of the three, two were Indians and one Ukrainian.

"On February 24 I was informed by the ship management that due to an unfortunate incident inside the cargo-hold, Luv collapsed and has been taken to hospital," Rajiv Sharma, father of Luv Sharma, said. Three hours later he was informed that Luv had died.

"They (the shipping company) agree that the body shall be repatriated at their cost once all the investigation and formalities at Dammam are completed," he said.

"But the Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia informed the Directorate General Shipping that the process may take upto six to eight weeks," he said.

"Investigations can go on. I have no objection. But a dead body will not speak up. It should be sent back to the family after post-mortem. I fail to understand why the body should be detained for such a long period," Sharma said.

Rajiv Sharma said he had approached Union shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari's office in Nagpur, requesting the Minister's personal intervention.

The investigation in such matters takes a long time, "3-4 weeks," it is stated.