17 days after death, Sivaganga man’s body finally reaches native town from Malaysia

What complicated the process was that the man had flown to Malaysia using another person’s passport. The deceased, R Pandiarajan of Thani Veeranendal hamlet near A Karungulam in Kallal block of Sivaganga district, was working as a private security guard in Kajang in Hulu Langat district, Selangor, Malaysia. 

After being booked by the authorities in Malaysia for working without a valid permit, he was sentenced to undergo 3 months in prison, after which he was to be deported. 

However, after serving the prison sentence, as he was brought to the airport to put him on a flight to India, Pandiarajan collapsed at the airport on January 23. He was admitted to a hospital there, where he died on January 29. Malaysian Global Rescue Humanity’s president T Kamalanathan, who was helping Pandiarajan, contacted his wife Valli in Sivaganga. 

“It was learnt that Pandiarajan had come to Malaysia on another person’s passport, which could not be used for his return. With the assistance from Indian embassy here and also Sivaganga district administration, we obtained temporary travel document for him with which we flew his body home,” Kamalanathan said. 

In Tiruchy where the body was handed over to the family on Wednesday evening, Pandiarajan’s nephew Ramesh said he had not visited home ever since he left for the South East Asian country 15 years ago. 

“Malaysian authorities contacted us on January 23 asking whether Pandiarajan had reached home. That was the last time we heard from the authorities there. We tried reaching them for the next week or so through his employer, but the efforts were in vain. 

Since then, we were searching for Pandiarajan here and also in Malaysia. Then we heard from the employer that he died at the hospital. We sought the help of Kamalanathan, who helped us contact the embassy and get things done,” Ramesh told DTNext. Pandiarajan is survived by his wife Valli, and two sons.