Most — if not all — of us would be shocked to find out that a close relative has been living under a false name all along.
While this sounds like something that’s more likely to happen in the movies, it was very real for the family of Abdul Rahman Majid. Or should we say, “Abdul Rahman Majid”.
After he died of natural causes in his Geylang Bahru rental flat last year, police took his fingerprints so they could confirm his identity.
Strangely, they were unable to find any record of his prints in the national database.
Investigations found that the real Abdul Rahman Majid is alive and living in a welfare home.
A coroner’s inquiry into the man’s death was held on Tuesday (18 July).
According to Channel NewsAsia (CNA), the man’s youngest son found him not breathing in the living room on 5 Aug 2022 and called the police.
When they arrived, officers referred to the “father” column on his son’s birth certificate and determined his name to be Abdul Rahman Majid.
The man was found to have died of natural causes, namely coronary artery disease.
However, things soon took an odd turn.
Police were unable to find any NRIC or passport belonging to the man in his home.
Source: Bloomberg, for illustration purposes only
All they could find were passes to a construction site and UOB Plaza, which had the man’s photo and the name “Abdul Rahman Majid”.
Even more unusual was the fact that they could not find his fingerprints in the Singapore, Malaysia or Indonesia databases.
In court, investigation officer (IO) Ng Yun Ning said that the man’s sons were astonished to learn that their father had been using a false name.
The Straits Times (ST) reported that IO Ng eventually managed to track down the real Abdul Rahman Majid, who is still very much alive.
He is reportedly a 69-year-old man who has been living at a welfare home in Buangkok since 1994 due to his chronic schizophrenia.
When IO Ng showed Mr Abdul Rahman a picture of the deceased, he shook his head to indicate that he did not know him.
The dead man’s youngest son and daughter-in-law also did not recognise the real Mr Abdul Rahman when they were shown his photo in court.
IO Ng attempted to speak to the deceased’s wife, but she could only respond with nods or head shakes as she suffers from schizophrenia.
During her investigation, IO Ng spoke to a cleaner who worked at the dead man’s block. Apparently, the deceased had asked the cleaner to call him “Kassim”.
One of his sons also recalled a visitor from Malaysia addressing the deceased as “Kassim” when he visited them at their old home in Hougang.
In court, State Coroner Adam Nakhoda instructed IO Ng to investigate the case further by:
CNA noted that the son who attended the coroner’s court said that all he wanted was to learn his father’s real name.
State Coroner Nakhoda said that they might not be able to do so as most of the investigations did not produce any clues about the dead man’s identity.
The coroner will give his findings at a later date.
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Featured image by MS News.
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