CHENNAI: In a bizarre incident, a 53-year-old man allegedly dumped the body of his dead mother in a plastic barrel and poured a concrete mixture, and claimed he wanted to ‘keep his mother with him forever’, police said.
K Shenbagam, 86, was ill for the past few years and stayed in the house most of the time. She stayed with her second son Suresh whose wife deserted him years ago. Shenbagam’s elder son is married and lives elsewhere. The elderly woman stepped out of the house rarely. But she was not seen by the neighbours for the past about two weeks.
“Suresh's neighbours in Saraswathy Nagar alerted his estranged wife that Shenbagam was not seen stepping out lately. She alerted Suresh's brother and the latter reached the house. He questioned Suresh about Shenbagam. To his shock, his brother informed him that their mother died two weeks ago and he carried out the funeral by himself since his other siblings abandoned her when she was alive. Suresh later showed a plastic barrel covered with concrete atop claiming that he buried his mother in it so that she would be with him forever," a senior police officer said.
Shenbagam's elder son alerted the Neelankarai police. They rushed to the spot, broke open the barrel and recovered Shenbagam's body. Subsequently, it was sent to the Government Royapettah Hospital for post-mortem.
After preliminary investigations police said they suspect Shenbagam might have died of ill health since there were no suspicious marks found on her body.
The body was handed over to the family for the proper funeral and a case has been registered under Section 174 of CrPC.
Police after an investigation said that Suresh, a tailor by profession, was mentally disturbed due to which his wife separated from him. Though Shenbagam had three sons, she chose to stay with Suresh at his own house.
Police suspect that Shenbagam might have died at least two weeks ago and that Suresh might have buried her in the barrel since he did not have money to carry out the funeral.
Police said that Suresh earlier used the barrel to store water and bought cement from an outlet after Shenbagam's death.