Mistaken identity leads to cremation of Muslim man in Kerala

Jeddah: In a case of mistaken identity, bodies of two NRIs who died in Saudi Arabia got interchanged, leading to the cremation of a man from Uttar Pradesh in Kerala. The bereaved family in Uttar Pradesh was not able to have a glimpse of their loved one as the body went by mistake to Kerala. […]

Jeddah: In a case of mistaken identity, bodies of two NRIs who died in Saudi Arabia got interchanged, leading to the cremation of a man from Uttar Pradesh in Kerala.

The bereaved family in Uttar Pradesh was not able to have a glimpse of their loved one as the body went by mistake to Kerala. With the mistake coming to light, the ‘actual’ body was then sent from UP to Kerala, where the family had to perform the last rites and cremation twice in three days.

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The deceased persons were identified as 46-year-old Shaji Rajan from Alappuzha district of Kerala, and Javed Ahmed Idrishi, 45, who was from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. While Rajan died, allegedly by suicide, in Al Ahsa town two and a half months ago, Idrishi died in a hospital in Dammam on September 25. As per arrangements, Rajan’s body was to be sent to his from Dammam via Colombo to Thiruvananthapuram through Air Lanka while Javed’s body was to be sent to Varanasi via New Delhi from Dammam through IndiGo.

However, a terrible mistake saw Javed’s body reaching Thiruvananthapuram, with his family deciding to go ahead with the cremation believing the body was over two months old. However, with his daughter insisting to see her father’s face, they uncovered the face. Though the daughter repeated that it was not her father’s body, the family went ahead with the cremation due to the odour from the corpse, relatives said.

In Varanasi meanwhile, Mustaqim Ashrafi, Idrishi’s father-in-law was in shock after discovering the discrepancy when he saw the name written on the wooden casket and the tagged airway bill. He immediately alerted his relatives in Saudi Arabia, who in turn contacted Nass Vokkam Shoukat, a community social worker in Dammam to inform about the mistake.

With the help of the Indian Embassy, Nass contacted Uttar Pradesh Police and local authorities to return the body to Kerala, where it was finally cremated.