It was a most tormenting homecoming. On Monday, 10 months after his death, the body of P.R. Krishnankutty Nair, 53, was brought from Saudi Arabia to his house he has never seen at Kidangoor.
Nair, who had been in Saudi Arabia since 1998, had come on vacation the last time in 2008. It was after that the old house was renovated and extended. He was expected for the housewarming early last year, but decided to postpone his journey to Onam. But all plans went awry.
It was at 10.45 p.m. on April 26, 2011 that the car driven by Nair skidded off the road in Jizan, a city on the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia. “He, along with an Egyptian colleague, was returning after buying food for the party being held by our boss,” said Vasu Achari Sivan, a colleague of Nair's. Mr. Sivan was awaiting his friends for dinner on that fateful night when the call came that Nair's vehicle had met with an accident.
“He was at the wheel and was trying to save a stray camel which crossed the road. He lost control over the vehicle and it overturned many times before resting upside down,” Mr. Sivan said. “Our Egyptian colleague received minor injuries, but ‘Krishnettan' had a deep injury on his chest, which was fatal. ‘Krishnettan' had stood up and walked a few paces before he collapsed. He fought till the last moment.”
However, that was not the end, but the beginning of a long fight for Nair, his friends, and relatives back home. It was Sivan who completed the formalities for taking the body back home, but all came to naught as the sponsor, whom Nair had served not only as a heavy vehicle driver but also as family driver since 1998, refused to give the no-objection certificate. The issue got complex as the sponsor filed a case seeking damages for his car as condition for releasing the body.
Mr. Sivan, in whose name the power of attorney was given by the family, was implicated in the case to pay the damages.
Malayali friends working in Saudi Arabia and the family back home ran from pillar to post seeking help from political leaders and bureaucrats, both in India and Saudi Arabia, but almost every effort was stonewalled. Shihab Kodukad, the NoRKA consultant in Saudi Arabia, was slapped with a case and was asked to pay damages amounting to 55,000 riyals. For the family, the fight began when V.S. Achuthanandan was the Chief Minister.
The Union Ministers and the State authorities were contacted many times over, Mr. Sivan said. Even as months went by, back home, the initial anticipation gave way to desperation. The situation changed only after the Governor of the Jizan Region intervened. The Saudi Ministry of Interior Affairs issued the requisite clearance for the transportation of the body exactly 10 months after the accident on Saturday. The body which left Jizan for Kochi via Riyadh arrived at 10 a.m. on Monday and was taken home, where his cremation was held after holding the rites.
Nair leaves behind his wife, Sarasamma, and sons, Sudheesh, who works for a private financial institution, and Hareesh, who has completed his undergraduate programme in computer applications.
