Dubai: The bodies of Santhosh Kumar, his wife and only daughter, were finally consigned to flames in Sharjah on August 9 in the presence of a gathering of 25 people comprising local friends and relatives.
The cremation ceremony comes nearly a month following the grisly discovery of their murder-suicide.
It may be recalled that on July 15, the decomposing bodies of Malayalam film producer and UAE businessman, Santhosh Kumar, 48, his wife, Manju, 38, and daughter, Gauri, 8, were found in their apartment in Al Nahda area in Dubai, when a relative alerted the police after failing to establish any contact with them.
Based on the suicide note found on the premises, the police established that this was a murder-suicide pact.
A close associate of Kumar disclosed that the deceased businessman’s maintenance company was going to be liquidated as it had mounted up liabilities close to Dh1 million.
“There were outstanding bills to the tune of Dh400,000 to be paid to maintenance and decoration companies. Add to that huge debts which were not known to employees as Kumar had taken to borrowing from friends and relatives. No one has any idea how much he borrowed but the sum was easily close to one million. Owing to the nature of their deaths under mysterious circumstances, the investigations took nearly a month to be cleared. The bodies were finally handed over only on August 9 and immediately taken for cremation,” he added.
Following the cremation, Kumar’s elder brother, Sri Kumar, who had flown in from Oman and was in the city for nearly a month and was overseeing the police, immigration and consulate formalities, is likely to be given access to the deceased family’s flat in Al Nahda so that he can take possession of their personal belongings.
