Director Sanal Kumar Sasidharan who has thrown his weight behind movies such as S Durga and Chola, has alleged foul play in the death of his relative, Sandhya, a 40-year-old resident of Thiruvananthapuram.
The filmmaker notes in his social media posts that there were alleged attempts from the part of the local police to rush the funeral without getting a post-mortem done. He also pointed out that Sandhya, his cousin, who had recently recovered from COVID-19, was healthy before her sudden demise on November 7.
He also further wrote that Sandhya in 2018 had allegedly donated a portion of her liver voluntarily but had hidden the same to her family members. He says that only Sandhya’s daughter was in the know about this and was instructed by her mother to keep it to herself.
However, a few incidents following Sandhya’s death raised the family’s suspicion that an organ transplant ‘mafia’ was involved, the filmmaker said, adding that there were bruises found on the arms, neck and under the eyes of the deceased.
Post Sandhya’s death, her body was kept in Neyyattinkara Taluk Hospital’s mortuary. Sanal alleges that the cops initially didn’t seem to make a note of the bruises on the body but happened to do so only after the intervention of a Sub Inspector.
They were also confusion and chaos regarding the post-mortem, the director notes. “It is then, by evening (November 11), I learned from a media person that the post-mortem was not done and there are chances that it will be held today morning (November 12),” Sanal wrote.
“If this is true, then the mystery around her death are again increasing. We feel there was an attempt to cremate the body without holding a post-mortem,” Sanal wrote in a complaint to the Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the State Police Chief Lokanath Behera. He also stressed that her COVID-19 test should be redone in the National Institute of Virology (NIV), situated in Alappuzha.
Sanal's complaint and suspicion comes in the wake of media reports alleging organ ‘mafia’ in the state. Post the filmmaker’s complaint, the funeral was reportedly postponed post the samples being sent to the NIV.