Man spends 18 days with mother’s decomposing body in Kolkata house

Police detained a resident of Salt Lake on the outskirts of Kolkata for keeping the decomposed body of his mother at home for over a fortnight. The matter came to notice when his neighbours informed the police when the stench spread in the area.

Police broke open the door of the house late on Sunday and found Maitreyo Bhattacharya, who appeared to be in his thirties, sitting with the decomposed body of his mother, Krishna Bhattacharya, 70. Bhattacharya was detained for questioning by Bidhannagar city police.

The youth was unemployed. He and his mother used to live in the house. They ran household expenses from his father’s pension.

“He told us that he informed an acquaintance, who lives in Beadon Street in north Kolkata, of his mother’s death. We are verifying his claims,” said an officer of Bidhannagar city police.

Though the youth told the officers in Bidhannagar North police station that his mother died about a week ago, from the degree of decomposition, police officers think that she might have died about 17-18 days ago.

Bhattacharya also told the police that his mother told him not to cremate her body but to bury it in the house.

Police officers were surprised to find that photocopies of his voter identity card, ration card, and secondary and higher secondary certificates were pasted at the main door of the house.

The youth’s father, Gora Bhattacharya, a doctor associated with state-run SSKM Hospital, died a few years ago, neighbours told the police. Subsequently, his mother, who was a school teacher, fell sick.

The neighbours also informed the police that they youth appeared to be unstable and often used to pick up quarrels with them, and therefore, most people of the locality used to avoid him.

In June 2015, Partha De, a 44-year-old resident of Robinson Street in south Kolkata was found to have spent about six months in his house with the skeletons of his sister and pet dog. In April this year, Shubhabrata Majumdar, 43, was detained by Kolkata Police for allegedly preserving the body of his mother inside a refrigerator for three years after her death at the age of 84.