Special team to probe UP family that kept body for 18 months

Joint Commissioner Police (JCP) Anand Prakash Tiwari has constituted the team to investigate the matter.

Kanpur: A special team constituted by the Kanpur police to probe an incident wherein a family was found living with the body of a 35-year-old man, who had died during the Covid-19 pandemic about one and a half year ago.

Joint Commissioner Police (JCP) Anand Prakash Tiwari has constituted the team to investigate the matter.

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The JCP said, ADCP (West) Lakhan Singh Yadav will head the team.

“The focus of the team will be, what method did the family members adopt to avoid the body from decomposing and for what purpose did the relatives keep the dead body safe for so long in the house,” he said.

Police are also contacting the deceased’s office, bank and other departments.

“If the department concerned demands a criminal investigation, it will also be done. And if anyone is found guilty, action will be taken against him/her also. It will also be discussed what crime is made in the law for insulting a dead body,” JCP further said.

Vimlesh Dixit died due to sudden cardiac respiratory syndrome on April 22, 2021 and a death certificate to this effect was issued by a private hospital.

The family of the Income Tax Department employee did not cremate the body and kept it at home for almost 18 months, assuming that he was in a coma.

What is baffling the police and the people is the fact that the dead body did not smell and was not completely decayed.

The flesh had dried up and got stuck with the bones. If the family members are to be believed, no paste or substance was applied on Vimlesh’s body during this period.

They used to clean Vimlesh’s body daily with ‘Gangajal’ and his clothes were also changed every two to three days.

People got to know about this strange incident when a team of health officials, along with policemen and the magistrate, reached the person’s house in the Rawatpur area on September 23.

When the I-T Department informed the family members that Vimlesh had not been attending office for the past one and a half years and further probed them about his whereabouts, they insisted that he was alive and in coma, according to Dr Ranjan, chief medical officer.

Neighbours told police that the family members were often seen taking oxygen cylinders home.

The police said that Dixit’s wife appeared to be mentally unstable.