KOCHI: Santon Lama stood outside the mortuary of the Kalamassery GMCH, waiting to identify a body believed to be that of his missing father, Suraj. Caught between a question and an answer that had been unbearably long coming, his face seemed to carry the weight of the past 50 days.
The search by a special investigation team for the missing Bengaluru native had yielded no breakthrough. Then came the discovery of an unidentified body in a marshy area barely a couple of kilometres from Suraj’s last known location. Having left Kochi earlier after an intense search, Santon’s flight back from Bengaluru for identification of the body was delayed by bad weather.
The anguish of all that broke through the moment he stepped out of the mortuary: without speaking to anyone, he walked to the steps nearby and pulled out his phone, called home in a trembling voice, and said, “Maa… nothing is left to see. It’s only bones.”
“He (Suraj) had a large black mole on his body and a mark from an old fracture he suffered years ago. But the body I saw was completely decomposed . How can I identify my father with just a trouser? So, we can only wait for the DNA results,” Santon told TNIE. “If it really is him, then my father was right beside me in these very areas while I was desperately searching for him.”
Santon reached Kochi on Sunday night after being informed by the police about the recovery of an unidentified body. On arrival, he went straight to the Kalamassery police station and requested permission to view the remains. However, officials deferred the identification process to Monday morning.