Sridevi Death : Meet the Man Who Helped Send Back Sridevi’s Body to India

Mangalore Today News Network

Mar 01, 2018: The procedure of bringing the body of the legendary actor to India would have taken even longer, had a man named Ashraf Thamarassery been not there.

The 44-year-old man from Kerala helped the Indian icon Sridevi’s mortal remains to return home. Thamarassery has so far helped repatriate 4,700 bodies to 38 countries across the world. He runs a mechanics shop in Ajman but focuses largely on his philanthropic efforts, helping the grief-stricken family members with the repatriation paperwork.

“For them, you or me, it’s all the same and everyone is equal. If someone dies in their room, they will take them to the hospital and then to be checked at the police mortuary,” Thamarassery told The Associated Press in an interview on late Tuesday night. “It’s the same process, whether Dubai or Sharjah or any emirate. ... Whether you’re poor or rich, it doesn’t matter.”

Sherry offered shrugs when talking about Sridevi, saying he helped repatriate five other bodies on Tuesday including the famed Bollywood star. But it’s hard to overstate the power Sridevi had over the imagination of many in India.

While Indian officials quickly cancelled her passport and prepared the other documents, Thamarassery said a needed police clearance slowed Sridevi’s repatriation. He received hundreds of calls from journalists, officials and others in the interim.

When the clearance came, he travelled to a simple government-run mortuary in a dusty neighbourhood of squat, square buildings that house some of Dubai’s immense population of foreign workers, many of whom come from South Asia.

There, officials embalmed her corpse as Thamarassery handled paperwork for her and three others. Curious Indian labourers spoke softly among themselves about the actress while standing outside of the mortuary. An ambulance then carried her body to a private jet reportedly sent by an Indian billionaire to take her home to Mumbai to be cremated.

By Tuesday night, Thamarassery returned home to the apartment he shares with his wife and daughter in Ajman, a small, dusty emirate in the UAE that serves as a bedroom community to skyscraper-studded Dubai some 35 kilometers (20 miles) to the southwest. There, Thamarassery runs a mechanics shop but focuses largely on his philanthropic efforts.

Shelf upon shelf in his home bears honours and awards. A framed picture hangs on the wall showing him meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

I do this “to earn blessings, but also when someone dies here, people don’t know how to manage the repatriation procedures,” he said. “That’s why I do it.”

All the while, his phone never stopped ringing, some of them undoubtedly new calls for his help.

Courtesy: Yahoo.com and livemint.com