Suraj Lama missing case: DNA test confirms it was him, final rites in Kochi

Kochi: The harrowing search for Suraj Lama (58), the Bengaluru native who vanished after being wrongly deported to Kochi from Kuwait, has reached a tragic conclusion. The DNA test of the decomposed body found in Kalamassery in November has confirmed that it is Lama’s. While the Kalamassery police plan to submit a formal DNA report to the High Court on Friday afternoon, Suraj’s son, Santon Lama, told Onmanorama that the laboratory results have positively identified the remains found as his father’s.

Santon and his mother, Rina Lama, arrived at Kochi airport at 9 am on Friday to complete the legal formalities, claim the remains and oversee the final ceremonies.
The Kalamassery police confirmed they received the forensic report from the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB) but declined to divulge details ahead of the court proceedings. “We received the report, and it will be submitted to the High Court this afternoon,” a police officer said. However, the police had already notified the family of the match.

Speaking to Onmanorama, Santon Lama expressed the pain of the last few months and said how relieved they are now to finally get a confirmation. “Yesterday, the police confirmed that the body they recovered from Kalamassery was my father's. They received the DNA test result from the laboratory. So we started to Kochi this morning itself,” Santon said.
“The police will submit the report to the HC on Friday afternoon, and based on the court's order, we will proceed further,” he added.

Despite the tragic outcome, Santon noted that the confirmation brought an end to the family’s agonising uncertainty. “We are happy that we finally got to know what happened to him. It was really painful for us not to get a confirmation about what happened to him. The result gives us closure,” he said.

The case gained widespread attention due to the series of systemic failures that led to the death of a vulnerable man. Suraj Lama, who ran a hotel in Kuwait, was one of the survivors of a major hooch tragedy in August. However, the incident left him with severe brain damage and total memory loss. In a move that drew sharp criticism from the High Court, Kuwaiti authorities deported him to Kochi, a city where he had no connections, instead of his home in Bengaluru. Disoriented and unable to remember his own name, he vanished shortly after being released from police custody and walking out of the Kalamassery Medical College in October.

This sparked a desperate search by Santon, who spent weeks wandering the streets of Kochi, distributing posters and scouring CCTV footage to find his father. His efforts led to a Habeas Corpus petition, which eventually forced a more intensive police search. On November 30, a highly decomposed body was discovered in a thicket near the HMT area in Kalamassery.

Final rites in Kochi
The family is planning to conduct the funeral in Kochi due to the state of the remains. “There is nothing much left of my father's remains to be taken back home because the body was in such a decomposed state. So we hope to complete the rituals here in Kochi itself, and we are looking for a priest. We are waiting for the court’s directions,” Santon said.

A High Court bench comprising Justice Devan Ramachandran and Justice MB Snehalata is expected to review the DNA findings on Friday. The court had previously expressed shock about the incident and questioned how a man in such a condition could be allowed to wander and die like an orphan in a civilised society.