Kerala: Family awaiting son’s mortal remains gets Lankan’s body

KOTTAYAM: Abdul Razak and his relatives gathered at the mosque in Kummannoor, a small village located 5km away from Konni in

Pathanamthitta

, on Thursday for the funeral of his son

Rafeek

(28), who had died in Saudi Arabia.


Rafeek is survived by his wife Surumi and a four-year-old son. She is pregnant with their second child.

Rafeek, who was employed there as a driver in the city of Abha, had died on February 18 following a cardio-respiration arrest.

His family had to wait over a month to get his body. Just minutes before the funeral, they opened the coffin, which arrived from Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, for one last look and were shocked to see the mortal remains of a woman.

As the day progressed,

Pathanamthitta police

and

Norka Roots

stepped in and found that the coffin with Rafeek’s body had landed in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Apparently, they had received the wrong coffin as there was a mix up during transportation.

Saudi Arabian Airlines refused to comment on the incident.

The district administration then advised Razak to take the body to Kottayam medical college where it was shifted to the morgue. Konni tahsildar, who later examined the body, felt that the woman might be from Sri Lanka after reading the name written on the coffin.

Norka Roots CEO Harikrishnan Namboothiri K said that the bodies might have been interchanged at the cargo wing of Jeddah airport after both coffins arrived from Abha airport. One was transported by Gulf Air to Colombo (via Bahrain), while the other was flown to Kochi by Saudi Arabian Airlines.

“A probe is required to know how the mix up happened. Though the bodies were interchanged, the documents were in order and hence there was no suspicion. The arrival of Rafeek's body will depended on the availability of Sri Lankan Airlines,” he said, adding that the woman’s body will be embalmed again at the medical college before being sent to Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, Pathanamthitta police informed that the staff of Saudi Arabian Airlines are planning to visit the house of Rafeek.

At the same time Cochin airport’s spokesperson clarified that airline officials released the body to Rafeek’s relatives after confirming the docket number on the coffin.

“Officials of Saudi Arabian Airlines said they did not open the coffin before handing over the body. Usually, coffins are not opened to verify the body unless relatives of the deceased put in a request. Identification is based on the coffin’s docket number and the deceased person’s name and address. The wrong body might have been shifted at Saudi. The airline is looking into the issue,” he said.


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