INQUIRER.net stock photo
A man from Jharkhand, India who said he “loved his father too much” refused to cremate the old man’s remains, hiding it instead at home for six months.
The police seized the decomposing corpse of 75-year-old Vishwnath Prasad and sent it for a post-mortem examination over the weekend, as reported by the Gulf News yesterday, Nov. 26. Meanwhile, his son Prashant Kumar Sinha was released from police custody after being interrogated.
While the result of the autopsy is yet to be revealed, Prasad’s family claimed the old man suffered from diarrhea. He passed away in May this year.
Sinha, who said he did not want to destroy his father’s memories, hid the death from their neighbors, the report stated. He took his father’s remains and hid it in a room in his home. He then used chemicals and blocks of ice to preserve the corpse.
His secret was unveiled last weekend when a group of boys, who were being tutored by his sister, complained of the stench in his house. Sinha at first tried to make excuses for the bad smell, but when the children tried to leave, he assaulted them.
His mother and sister tried to pacify him, but Sinha was too far gone and he also attacked them.
The victims’ cries for help were heard by villagers who rushed to their aid, the report said. They were surprised when they discovered Prasad’s remains surrounded by many lit incense to mask the smell.
“Apparently it got decomposed due to heat as my father had died at the peak of summer,” Sinha told the police during the investigation.
Villagers reported the incident to the authorities. While Sinha made it clear he hid the corpse because of his love for his father, his neighbors believed he was trying to resurrect Prasad with black magic.
“Had I cremated his body, all his memories would have been destroyed at once,” he stated in the report. “So I had kept his body at home for six months but the police [forcibly] took it away.”
In April, another man in India has been arrested for storing his mother’s dead body in a freezer three years after she died. Kate Matriano/JB
RELATED STORIES:
Man stores mother’s body for 3 years in freezer
Man confesses to strangling wife to death, sits beside her body for over a day