Group of men disrupt funeral, allegedly try to pull down coffin being carried to hearse in Jurong East

Several Stomper shared the video taken at Jurong East Street 24 on Nov 19.

Ong Su Mann

Posted on 29 November 2023 | 34,525 views | 66 comments

Submitted by Stomper Anand, Sonee, Raji, Anonymous

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It was chaos.

A group of men were caught on video allegedly trying to pull down a coffin being carried to a hearse in Jurong East.

Several Stompers shared the video taken at Block 247 Jurong East Street 24 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 off the flowers and to pull the coffin down," said the Stompers. "This is so disrespectful."

Raji added: "What an insulting thing to happen to a 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 who created a scene at the funeral with a group of friends.

In a police report seen by Stomp, the father of the deceased said the boyfriend brought around 20 or more people.

The father recounted that they started to pull at the coffin in the void deck when the coffin was being moved from his home to the hearse.

"Their purpose was just to throw flowers onto the coffin as it is part of the funeral procedure," said the father, adding that the group shoved aside anyone who was in their way and a few people fell down.

"I had my neighbours and friends there to guard the coffin and thus the coffin did not manage to be pulled down by them.

"We continued with the funeral and placed the coffin in the van. When the van was about to move off, the group then blocked the van and didn't allow the van to move off."

The group dispersed only after the police arrived.

The father said in the police report: "We continued the funeral and when we reached the Mandai crematorium, we also saw police there.

"My daughter's boyfriend and the group did not follow us to the crematorium as they knew the police were there. When everything ended, we came back and the group was not at my place or in the vicinity any more."

In response to a Stomp query, the police confirmed a report was lodged.

Update:

After the article was published, a reader wrote to Stomp, claiming to be a witness.

"This funeral was in my neighbourhood and I was personally there at the funeral. I am not related to anyone at the funeral," said the reader.

"The garland was from the boyfriend of the deceased. The girl's family refused to have him place the garland. Hence, he had to throw the garland from a distance into the coffin. But the deceased's family and friends pulled down the coffin to pull off this garland and threw it to the floor.

"Honestly, the entire time, the boyfriend did not create any scene at the funeral. The chaos was created by the deceased's family.

"Just because the family did not want the boyfriend to see the deceased's face for the last time, they did not even properly conduct the funeral rites as it should have been."

Instead, the family instructed the casket company to move the coffin to the hearse, said the reader.

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