2 Women Found Living With 78-Year-Old Man's Decomposed Body For More Than A Month

A woman and her daughter in India were found living with the decomposed body of a 78-year-old man, who reportedly died more than a month ago.

The police said the incident came to light Wednesday after neighbors alerted the authorities about a stench emanating from the house in the eastern city of Kolkata.

When the police arrived at the house to investigate, they found the two women were living with the corpse and going about doing their normal daily activities, media outlet She The People reported.

"The man must have died at least a month-and-half ago. The body has been fully decomposed, exposing the skeleton," a police officer told the local media.

The victim was identified as Digvijay Ghosh, who had been living in the house with his wife and their daughter. The police said Ghosh's cause of death remains unknown. The body has been sent for an autopsy while police are questioning the wife and the daughter. The authorities are also trying to ascertain if the women were depressed.

When officers had initially arrived at the house, the two women had tried to resist them from entering and conducting a search.

"The doors and windows were shut and nobody was allowed to enter the house. The daughter was not living with her husband and was staying in her maternal house for the last couple of years. We are investigating the incident," a police officer said, according to Outlook India.

A body is moved from a refrigeration truck serving as a temporary morgue to a vehicle at the Brooklyn Hospital Center in April 2020 AFP / Bryan R. Smith

In a similar case last month, a woman in Kolkata was found living with the decomposed body of her 61-year-old mother inside their home. The police arrived at the house after neighbors complained of the stench. Authorities forced open the main door of the house and found the woman lying next to the body of an elderly person. The victim was identified as Krishna Das. Preliminary investigation revealed Das had died four days ago, based on the state of the decomposed body.

Last year in a similar case in the city of Mumbai, a woman was arrested for keeping her mother’s corpse for over eight months at her home. The police said the woman’s 83-year-old mother died in March 2020, and her daughter was living with the corpse up until November 2020.