Woman's funeral disrupted as disagreement erupts between boyfriend and family
It was a disruption to a person's final journey – a group of men was caught on video pulling at a coffin being carried to a hearse in Jurong East.
In the video shared on Nov 19, Stompers Sonee, Raji and Anonymous said they were friends of the deceased's family and wanted justice for them.
"What kind of atrocious behaviour is that, to pull down the coffin and the flowers on it. This is so disrespectful," they said.
Raji added: "What an insult to that family that simply wanted to send off their child in a proper manner. Nobody deserves to have this happen at their funeral."
Stomper Anand, a relative, said the deceased was a 23-year-old woman who took her own life because of boyfriend problems and it was the boyfriend and his group of friends who were creating a scene at the funeral.
In a police report seen by Stomp, the father of the deceased said the boyfriend had about 20 people with him at the funeral. They pulled at the coffin when it was in the void deck as it was being transferred to the hearse.
He added that the group shoved anyone in their way and caused a few people to fall.
"Good thing I had my neighbours and friends there to guard the coffin, so it could not be pulled down," said the father of the deceased.
"We continued with the funeral and placed the coffin in the hearse. But when it was about to move off, the group blocked its path."
The police was called and the group dispersed only after the police arrived.
"There was also police presence at Mandai Crematorium. My daughter's boyfriend and the group did not follow us to the crematorium as they knew the police would be there. When everything ended, we came home and the group was nowhere to be seen," the report quoted the father of the deceased as saying.
A netizen who claimed to have witnessed the kerfuffle wrote to Stomp: "The garland was from the boyfriend of the deceased. The girl's family refused to let him place the garland, so he tossed the garland onto the coffin from a distance but the girl's family and friends pulled at the coffin to remove the garland.
"Honestly, the entire time, the boyfriend did not create any scene at the funeral. The chaos was created by the girl's family, who did not want to let the boyfriend see her for the last time."
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