Thousands of strangers joined the family and friends of Jacintha Saldanha today, bidding farewell to the nurse who was found dead days after answering a prank call from Australian radio station 2day FM.
Standing in the church where he wed Jacintha Saldanha 19 years ago, widower Benedict Barboza said his final goodbyes.
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Barboza and his two children were joined by over two thousand people, most of whom barely knew the nurse, at Our Lady of the Health Church in the southern Indian town of Shirva.
The public and media crowded around the church during the private ceremony after the family made a last-minute decision to cancel the public viewing of Saldanha’s body.
“We made elaborate security arrangements at the church and the cemetery to maintain order and ensure the family members were not mobbed by the media or the public who came from far and near to attend the funeral,” Udupi Superintendent of Police M. Boralingaiah told the Indo-Asian News Service.
At the end of the ceremony, Saldahna’s coffin was carried from the church to a nearby cemetery, where the masses flocked to watch the burial.
Barboza hugged his 16-year-old son, Junal, and 14-year-old daughter, Lisha, while the casket was lowered and the brass band played a final hymn.
Saldahna was found hanged days after transferring a prank call from two 2Day FM radio presenters to a colleague at London’s King Edward VII hospital. Her colleague revealed confidential information regarding the Duchess of Cambridge’s acute morning sickness to the presenters who were posing as Prince Charles and the Queen.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority has opened an investigation surrounding the radio station’s prank call.
While an inquest in London last week revealed there were no suspicious circumstances over the nurse’s death, Detective chief inspector James Harman stated in the coronal hearing Saldanha left three notes.
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Inspector Harmon did not reveal the written content of the notes but a full inquest will be held in March 2013. It is believed Jacintha accused the hospital of ignoring a dispute between her and a junior staff member.
Barboza, his son and family friend Steven Almeida spoke in a brief press conference yesterday but refused to comment on any action against the hospital or 2Day FM.
