Kochi: Hundreds bid tearful adieu to Anju Ashok (35) and her children, Jeeva (six) and Jhanvi (four), who were murdered at Kettering in England in December.
Anju's father Ashokan was inconsolable when the bodies were brought to Ithipuzha in Vaikom in separate ambulances.
The funeral pyres were lit by Unni, Anju's cousin. Hundreds paid homage to the departed.
Earlier on the day, the mortal remains reached the Cochin Airport by Saturday after a six-hour transit at Dubai Airport. The bodies of Anju and the two children were boarded on an Emirates aircraft from Manchester on Friday morning.
Manoj Mathew, a colleague of Anju in the UK, had accompanied the caskets as ‘next of kin.’
The procedures to send the mortal remains to Kerala took more than a month as the UK follows elaborate procedures in unnatural deaths. As the UK police take steps to ensure that the need for a re-investigation never arises, the bodies of murder victims are often kept by the police for extended periods.
Anju Ashok, who was an NHS nurse in the UK, and her children were allegedly murdered by her husband Saju Chelevalan (52) in Kettering last month.
A two-member team from the British police will be arriving in Kerala soon as part of the investigation into the murders.
The team comprises the police officer heading the probe and the chief investigation officer of the Northamptonshire police.
