Unable to Accept Father's Death, Kolkata Man Lives with Octogenarian's Decomposing Body for 5 Days

Kolkata: Police on Thursday recovered the semi-decomposed body of an elderly man from a house in the city's Behala area where his son was living with the corpse for the last five days.

Police received a call from Ashok Kumar Ghosh, the elder son of Rabindranath Ghosh (85), who informed them that his younger brother Ajit Kumar Ghosh, who is mentally ill, was living with their father's body, a senior police officer said.

"Going by the state of the body's decomposition, it seems the old man had died around four to five days ago. The younger son did not inform his elder brother and was living with the body since then," he said.

The elder son, who stays in a nearby house in the same locality of Parnasree area in the southern part of the city, came to his father's house and was struck by a pungent smell, the officer said.

"At that time Ajit was not at home and Ashok, after finding the body, called us," he said.

"Ajit was very depressed. It seems he was very down at the death of his father and could not accept the fact. Thus, he continued living with his father's body and did not even inform his elder brother," the officer said.

Police detained Ajit and were trying to talk to him about the matter, he said, adding that a psychologist may also be consulted for the purpose.

The body was sent for post-mortem examination while a case was initiated at the Parnasree Police Station.

In June 2015, a man - Partha Dey - was found to be living with the skeletons of his elder sister and two pet dogs.

The police had stumbled on the skeletons of Dey's sister and dogs on June 10, 2015 while investigating the death of Dey's father Arabinda De.

Arabinda's body was also recovered from the bathroom of his residence at Robinson Street after getting a call about a fire.

Dey was found to be living with the skeleton of his unmarried elder sister Debjani Dey for about six months after her death due to fasting.

The carcasses of their two pet dogs were also found in Dey's room.

Dey underwent treatment at the Pavlov Hospital for the mentally ill.

He was released from there after they found him to be "fit".

In February 2017 police found his charred body from a flat in the port area of the city.