The body of a recently deceased Reliance, East Canje, Berbice man had to be removed yesterday from what was expected to be its final resting place after it was discovered that it had been given to the wrong family, which had carried out a funeral and burial on Tuesday.
The relatives of Mohabir Rangasammy, 79, Reliance, East Canje Berbice, were able to cremate his body yesterday but remained without answers as to how the mix up occurred.
The family made a report to the New Amsterdam Police Station yesterday after making the discovery that the Persaud Funeral Home had released Rangasammy’s body to another family, which later buried him.
Sunday Stabroek was told that the two deceased were COVID-19 fatalities and as a result the funeral home reportedly assumed the responsibility for preparing the bodies for the funerals.
According to a relative of Rangasammy, when they showed up yesterday morning to oversee the preparation of his body for a cremation planned at midday yesterday, it was then that they discovered that the body was not his. “We see that is not he on the table and them can’t find him in the whole parlour and them na find me dad,” his daughter reported.
It was then discovered that Rangasammy’s body was handed over to another family on Tuesday.
A representative of the other family was then contacted and visited the funeral home and identified the body there to be that of his father yesterday morning “and he gone Central Police Station to get a paper to go break the tomb now to get my father out of there,” Rangasammy’s daughter explained.
Rangasammy’s body was eventually removed from the tomb and was later cremated in East Canje, by his correct family. “Nuff a’ he relatives come from overseas for this funeral. Now them can’t get to see he nothing”, his distraught daughter related yesterday.
Efforts to contact the owner of the funeral home yesterday proved futile.
According to Rangasammy’s relatives, no answers were provided to them either. The family members said they plan on contacting a lawyer to look at the possibility of taking legal action against the funeral home.
