‘Dead’ man turns up alive and well eight months after he was CREMATED in India

A 36-year-old man from India who was pronounced dead and then cremated has turned up alive and well eight months later in a case of mistaken identity.

Police in Goa’s Margao city found Deepak Balakrishnan Kandi at a hotel in the area of ​​the old station road on Tuesday night.

He was then transferred to the custody of the Kerala Police, who had been on standby after realizing the cremated body was not his. The Indian Times reports.

Police sources said Deepak went missing on June 7 last year in the city of Meppaur, which is in the district of Kerala and about 540 kilometers south of Margao.

A missing person report was filed with the local police station.

However, on July 17, the body of a man recovered from a beach in Kerala was misidentified as Deepak.

Deepak’s family performed the final rites, but days later, Kerala police realized that the cremated body actually belonged to Irshad, a native of Panthirkkara in Kerala, who had also gone missing.

Police in the city of Margao in Goa found Deepak Balakrishnan Kandi (pictured) at a hotel in the area of ​​the old station road on Tuesday night.

A DNA test carried out on samples from Deepak’s remains confirmed the police mistaken identity case.

A manhunt then ensued and the criminal branch took over the investigation.

On Tuesday, the Margao city police were engaged in routine surveillance of the hotels.

During a random check of the guest list of a hotel along the road of the old station, they came across an Aadhar number, a unique identity number that can be obtained voluntarily by Indian citizens and resident foreign nationals. , which gave away Deepak’s identity.

He was arrested and then the Kerala police arrived and took him into their custody.

Deepak told police that he had traveled to various places including Jaipur, Delhi and Punjab before arriving in Goa recently.

He also said that he had done a casual job in Bogmalo, a town in Goa.

Deepak moved to the hotel in Margao, where he eventually fell on the police radar, ending his eight-month-long disappearing act.

At the Margao police station on Wednesday, when told by reporters that his final rights had been exercised, Deepak smiled and said it was the first time he had heard of it, before Kerala policemen took him away.

Street in Margao, Goa (file photo)

In May 2021, an elderly woman in India narrowly avoided being burned alive in another case of mistaken identity.

The woman, identified as Shakuntala Gaikwad, tested positive for Covid.

Her family took her to the Silver Jubilee Hospital in Baramati, but the wards were full so they were turned away, Yahoo reported.

While waiting for the ambulance, she lost consciousness and the family thought she had died and they prepared her for cremation.

But moments before the fire was ignited, Shakuntala woke up in a panic in her own funeral coffin and began to cry.

Local police confirmed the story.

She was later transported back to the hospital for treatment.