Remains of Indian tourist who died in immigration depot buried in Selayang

The remains of Zeawdeen Kadar Masdan, the Indian tourist who died in the Immigration Department's detention depot in Bukit Jalil, were buried at a cemetery in Selayang yesterday.

This was confirmed by Zeawdeen's friend Othuman Mansoor to Malaysiakini today.

"Yes, he was buried yesterday, around 11.30am at the Selayang cemetery.

"Yesterday morning, a medical official contacted me to come to the hospital to claim the remains," Othuman said.

Zeawdeen's family, who live in Chennai, had entrusted Othuman to arrange for the funeral in Malaysia.

However, Othuman couldn't claim the remains since two weeks ago after Zeawdeen was confirmed dead on June 12.

According to Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, the process to claim the body took some time, pending the lab report.

The burial, Othuman said, was managed by the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Department (Jawi). He only came to identify the deceased.

"There were four Jawi officers who arranged everything," he said.

For the record, Zeawdeen was treated as an undocumented migrant after his social visit pass expired during the movement control order (MCO) period. He was supposed to return to Chennai on March 20.

He was picked up in a raid at Malayan Mansion in the city centre on May 8 and sent to the Bukit Jalil immigration detention depot where he later contracted Covid-19.

Meanwhile, in a media conference, Noor Hisham explained that initial post-mortem investigations showed that Zeawdeen had a pneumonia infection and diabetes.

"There was a possibility of other infections but we have to wait for the full post-mortem investigation report," he said. - Mkini