Lyvita Gomes, the Mumbai native who died on hunger strike in an Illinois jail, is laid to rest, but questions remain. George Joseph reports.
'A country where we fight for human rights, a valuable human life was lost due to an unfair treatment by our concerned US officials from Lake County. Yes, we laid Lyvita Gomes to rest today. She is not amongst us to answer any questions. I ask to you that as a caretaker of Indians in the US, did your office take any action or launch any inquiry with concerned officials like Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office?'
Mumbai native Lyvita Gomes, 52, died after hunger strike of 15 days at the Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan, US, reports George Joseph.
The jury summons that changed her life forever was in the mail too. She might not have opened it and did not reply to it; she was not eligible for jury duty, being a non-citizen. It resulted in an arrest warrant and a sequence of events ultimately resulting in her death.
'A country where we fight for human rights, a valuable human life was lost due to an unfair treatment by our concerned US officials from Lake County. Yes, we laid Lyvita Gomes to rest today. She is not amongst us to answer any questions. I ask to you that as a caretaker of Indians in the US, did your office take any action or launch any inquiry with concerned officials like Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office?'
After two deaths, including that of Mumbai native Lyvita Gomes (India Abroad, January 27), and a hue and cry about the treatment of inmates in the Lake County, Illinois, jail, Sheriff Mark Curran Jr has appointed a private attorney to independently investigate the incidents.
Indian national Lyvita Gomes's death due to hunger strike against her "unjustified detention" in a Chicago prison last month is a "tragedy", the United States police has said, as it ordered a review of the policies related to self-starvation.
Oydsteven Gomes poses some hard-hitting questions over the circumstances that led his sister Lyvita to starve to death in Chicago, US
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