IPOH: Tears flowed freely at the funeral of Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, executed for drug trafficking in Singapore.

       Several women were seen hugging Nagaenthran’s 60-year-old mother Panchalai Supermaniam, who was inconsolable.

       About 200 family members and friends were present during the prayers at his house in Tanjung Rambutan.

       Several men carried his casket in a 500m procession from his house to the main road on Jalan Tambun before continuing on in a hearse to the crematorium in Buntong.

       Prior to the procession, firecrackers were also set off while his kin, many of whom were weeping, walked around his casket.

       The casket was carried by several men to the incinerator upon arrival at the crematorium.

       According to a relative who declined to be named, the prayers yesterday started at about 12.30pm.

       He said all those present paid their respects according to Hindu rites.

       “His closest family members applied some oil to his forehead. Those who did so would take vegetarian meals for 13 days.

       “After his mother and siblings paid their last respects, relatives then paid their respects by putting grains of rice in his mouth,” he said.

       He said that Nagaenthran’s ashes would be scattered at a river in Buntong.

       Nagaenthran, 34, was executed at Changi Prison in Singapore on April 27.

       He had spent about 11 years on death row after being sentenced for drug trafficking.

       Prior to the execution, there had been much public attention to his case.

       Several parties including British billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson appealed to Singapore to spare Nagaenthran’s life.

       In November last year, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob was reported to have written to Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong seeking leniency in the case.

       The following month, Singapore President Halimah Yacob said Nagaenthran had been accorded due process under the law.

       Nagaenthran, the second of four siblings, was sentenced to death in 2010 for trafficking 42.72g of heroin into Singapore in 2009.

       He was supposed to have been hanged on Nov 10, 2021, but was halted after he tested positive for Covid-19 when he appeared for a last-ditch attempt against his death sentence.

       On Tuesday, the Court of Appeal in Singapore dismissed a last-ditch legal challenge filed by Panchalai to set aside her son’s conviction and death sentence.