RIYADH: Police have ruled out any foul play in the death of a Sri Lankan man whose partially charred body was found in his apartment in the southern city of Abha last month.
Mohamed Imtisam Shamsudeen, 28, assistant manager of Home Center in Abha, was found dead on May 9. His family in Sri Lanka had alleged foul play and said he had experienced difficulties with colleagues prior to his death.
Abdul Lateef Mohamed Lafeer, the Sri Lankan consul general in Jeddah, told Arab News from Abha that he had met Col. Abdullah Sabith Al-Qahtani, the officer who headed an inquiry into the Lankan national’s death.
Lafeer said that police had ruled out foul play and that Shamsudeen had died in a fire caused by an iron that had short-circuited. Police also discovered that the door to the apartment had been locked from inside, indicating that Shamsudeen was inside the room at the time of the fire.
Police also found fragments of windowpanes outside his apartment, something they say indicate that the man had tried to escape by breaking windows. They added that a colleague who had been suspected of involvement in the death was 300 km away in Najran at the time.
Shamsudeen, who is survived by a one-year-old daughter, had been working for the past four years for Home Center’s parent company, Al-Bandar House for Trading.
Reporting Shamsudeen’s death to his relatives, Vittal Prabhu, chief operating officer of Al-Bandar House, said, “Shamsudeen was found dead in his accommodation under mysterious circumstances.”
Lafeer, who has seen the body in an Abha morgue, said it was completely burned and beyond recognition. He added that the consulate had requested a post mortem, which would be done in the coming days. The police have now submitted their findings to the Abha governorate.
Lafeer added that he would arrange visit visas for Shamsudeen’s relatives to attend the man’s funeral in the Kingdom. Shamsudeen’s sponsors have agreed to bear the travel costs of two of his relatives to the Kingdom.
Deen, Shamsudeen’s father, said his son had told his wife, Fathima Feroza, that if he were to die in the Kingdom then his last wish would be to be buried in Makkah.
