Muscat: Repatriation of the bodies of two Indian men, who were found dead last week, can only take place after the Royal Oman Police (ROP) gives its clearance, an Indian embassy consular agent in Salalah said.
“The post-mortem was done on Thursday. Now, we have to get clearance from the ROP to repatriate the bodies. We hope this will happen on Sunday,” Manpreet Singh, the Indian consular official in Salalah, said.
“The victims’ relatives have arrived in Oman. They are waiting to hear from the ROP,” he added.
Mohammed Musthafa and Najeeb Mohammed, both in their mid-40s, were found dead in Dahariz area in eastern Salalah on January 22.
Both of them were from the Indian state of Kerala.
According to sources in Dahariz, they were from Ernakulum district in Kerala, and were looking for some business opportunities in Salalah.
Sources said the neighbours saw the bodies in the morning and informed the police.
While one of the bodies was found in a victim’s apartment, the other was in a nearby building.
Both Mohammed and Najeeb were stated to be friends and partners in a business in Kerala and were looking for some opportunity to start a stone chips crusher unit in Thamrait.
Anas Mohammed, a cousin of Najeeb, had told the Times of Oman from Kuwait earlier that Muhammed and Najeeb were very good friends and had been doing business together in India for the last 15 years.
“In Oman, they wanted to start a crusher unit for which they had conducted a trial last Saturday. The next day, they were found dead,” Anas added.
“Musthafa and Najeeb had partnered with two others (one Indian and an Omani citizen) to start this crusher plant in Thumrait. Both the friends used to visit Oman regularly on visit visas. They had worked very hard for the last one year but sadly they couldn’t see the crusher plant working at Thumrait,” a common friend of the two deceased said.
A social worker in Oman had informed that their bodies will be sent to India once investigations were over.
“They were so close to each other and had been friends for a long time. So we don’t think anything could have gone wrong between them,” the social worker said.
Police investigations into the deaths are still on, according to relatives.