A Mombasa court has granted an application by the coast Regional Criminal Investigation office to exhume the body of a businessman Anverali Nazerail for autopsy to establish the cause of his death.
Mombasa Senior Resident Magistrate Vincent Adet directed the body which was buried two months ago at the Khoja Shia ithnaasheri graveyard in Mombasa county to be exhumed within 7 days of the ruling.
However, the late businessman's widow Kiran Nazerali, her twenty year old daughter Mahek Fatima and her 18 year old son Nurjehan Abbas have moved to the high court to challenge the lower court's ruling through counsels Mohamed Balala and Sborne Lijoodi who had put up a spirited fight for the late businessman's widow.
The family counsels said they are moving to the high court to seek an order to stop the exhumation until the case is heard and determined.
The Resident Magistrate dismissed the bereaved family's application opposing the exhumation saying it has no merit.
The court insisted the application through DCI officer Pharis Thoya to exhume the body of the deceased to establish the cause of death of the businessman dated 6th July this year has merit.
He insisted that the exphunged letter from Aga Khan Hospital medical director Dr Sam Oula and that of the DCI have demonstrated that the discharge of the deceased from the health facility must be subjected to investigation to establish the cause of death.
In his one and half page ruling in the application to exhume the body he argued the only way to establish the cause death of the businessman is through an autopsy.
The magistrate said in his ruling this is the only way the government can carry out the intended inquest into the death of the late businessman.
He said his ruling is guided by other previous rulings in similar cases.
"Whether the application to exhume the body has merit or not is within the jurisdiction of the court to decide," he pointed out.
The court said the exhumation of the body is in line with the administration of justice which is paramount.
The Magistrate said when the post mortem is carried out it will determine the cause of death of the businessman in favour of the trurth and justice.
He said the report on the cause of death of the deceased will be crucial to enable the court determine the application which was filed in court.
"After the post mortem is carried out we will be able to chart the way forward on the matter in dispute before the court," he pointed out.
The court said the bereaved family which is opposing the exhumation of the body must consider public interest despite the right of the relatives to have the businessman's remains to be undisturbed.
The deceased's estranged brother Shakir Awar, a Pakistani national who cried foul over his brother's death resurfaced two weeks after the burial and was represented by counsel Michael Oloo while prosecution is led by Hillary Isiaho.
