Dubai: The bodies of the 5-year-old girl and the father who was found hanging in their apartment last month have been cremated on Tuesday morning, Gulf News has learnt.
Relatives of the victims said that the bodies were flown to India on Monday from Dubai.
The mother who was found in her apartment with her wrists slashed in an apparent suicide bid — along with the bodies of her husband Rijesh Nambiar and their daughter Avantika — is still hosptalised. As Gulf News exclusively reported, she has recovered and will soon be discharged from the hospital.
Sreesha Nambiar, 30, was placed in psychiatric care at Rashid Hospital following the gruesome events that unfolded last month, leaving her the sole survivor of the family.
On January 14, Avantika, 5, and her father Rijesh Nambiar, 32, were found dead in their single-bedroom apartment in Bur Dubai behind Al Musalla Tower.
“Their bodies were kept at their home for about an hour and then were cremated around 7:30am UAE time,” a relative said.
According to the relative, the mother is cleared on any involvement in her child’s death. However, this is yet to be confirmed by the police.
The mother was found with wounds on her neck and wrist and was hospitalised by the police. The procedure to discharge Sreesha from the hospital will be initiated soon sources told Gulf News on Sunday.
However, whenever police investigation is involved (such as criminal cases or traffic accidents), the police are first notified before the patient is discharged, the source, who declined to be named, said.
The police may visit the patient to take a statement, take him/her into custody or even ask the person to visit the police station concerned, depending on the nature of the case.
“What should I say? I don’t know,” Sreesha told Gulf News, speaking to the media for the first time after the incident.
Her physical wounds have healed, she said, adding that her relatives are looking after her.
Hospital staff said that Sreesha claims to not remember anything that happened. “She told her relatives that the last thing she remembers is going to sleep the night before.”
When she was first admitted, she was hysterical but when she calmed down later, she seemed unaware of what had happened to her family and said that her child was at the day care centre and her husband was at work.
But later her relatives announced the deaths to her, the source said.
“Relatives are hoping to take her to see the bodies of her husband and daughter.”
The middle-income family is from Chakarakkal in Kannur district in the south Indian state of Kerala.
Forensic investigations established that the child was smothered to death with a pillow and that the father committed suicide by hanging himself.
Brigadier Khalil Ebrahim Al Mansouri, Director of Dubai Police’s Criminal Investigation Department, had said that the father left two letters — one to his family and the other to police. Rijesh wrote that he was having financial problems and was also facing problems with his former boss, also an Indian.
If it is proven that the mother had also been involved in suffocating her daughter, she would face charges of murder and attempted suicide, Brig Al Mansouri had said last month.
Rijesh’s brother Ribesh has been visiting the hospital regularly to check on Sreesha’s health, according to his friends.
“There was no sign of distress and everything seemed fine,” Ribesh had said shortly after the incident. “Rijesh mentioned in his suicide note that his former boss was creating problems for him,” he said.
“He wrote that the former boss came to his house and threatened him, accusing him of cheating... Rijesh denied cheating anyone and wrote that he is ending his life,” he said.
