An 83-year-old man lived with the decomposed body of his son, who reportedly died in his sleep after consuming alcohol, for four days before he was rescued by the police at Semmenchery on Friday night. Police said the elderly man, who could not move out of his bed due to sickness despite knowing that his son was dead, finally crawled out and informed his tenants after four days.
Police sources said Purushothaman, who was ill for the past few days and was restricted to his bed, crawled down from the first floor of his house to inform his tenants in the ground floor on a rainy Friday night that his son Mahendran (35), a habitual drinker, was dead. They lived on VOC Street, Village Road, Sholinganallur and their tenants were migrant labourers. Police added that since it was raining, none of the neighbours got the foul smell.
Soon, Semmenchery police arrived and rescued the man, who was already ill and hadn’t eaten for four days.
He was admitted to a private hospital in Sholinganallur while Mahendran’s body was shifted to Government Royapettah Hospital for autopsy.
They found that the father and son last drank together, as usual, though the elderly man was sick. The octogenarian, who used to cook food regularly, could not do so as he was sick.
Police said Mahendran could have died of his habitual drinking.
Both the father and son earlier made a living out of stitching leather seats for vehicles in Adyar and after they stopped working, they rented the ground floor of their house. They set up a thatched-roof room on the first floor of the house and stayed there.
Mahendran, who allegedly could not find a girl as he was a habitual drinker and a drug addict, was reportedly frustrated that he was not married though his two brothers and a sister were married and settled elsewhere, police said. Hence he drank regularly.
Police said one of Purushothaman’s sons visited him on July 16 and that was the last time the neighbours saw any movement in the house. “They were not on talking terms with any of their neighbours, who were mostly labourers who came home late in the evening. Neighbours had no suspicions as at times they both did not step out of the house for a day or two. When we rescued him, we thought he would also have died had he been left for one more day,” said M Venkatesan, Semmenchery police inspector. Police registered a case under 174 CrPC.