TUMAKURU: In a bizarre incident, an old man whom family members had presumed dead and conducted the final rites three months ago, surfaced on Tuesday at Chikkamaluru village in Madhugiri taluk.
While the family members were happy that he had returned home alive, police officers concerned are clueless as to whose body they had dispatched after conducting the postmortem three months ago. In fact, 13 years ago, Nagarajappa, an alcoholic, went missing from the village and his family members had almost lost hope of seeing him.
But on September 18, 2021, a security guard at St John’s Hospital in Bengaluru had rescued an ailing person from a nearby garden and admitted him to hospital, where he had passed away. Interestingly, Nagarajappa’s daughter Nethravati, a staff nurse at St John’s, noticed the body and took it to be her missing father, as there was a strong resemblance.
After the postmortem and an FIR by Koramangala police as it was an unnatural death, Nethravati claimed it as her father’s body on September 19, and took it home and conducted the final rites. But to their surprise, the ‘dead’ Nagarajappa (70) returned home on Tuesday. Besides the family members, residents of the village also recognised him as none other than Nagarajappa.
The hospital authorities clarified that it was only after police intervention and staff nurse Nethravathi claiming it as her father’s body, that it had been released. Now, Koramangala police are puzzled about whose body was dispatched, and cremated on September 19.