‘Dead’ Indian man calls home during his funeral

INDIA: An Indian man’s family almost cremated a dead body that resembled him but stopped when they got a telephone call from him, a report said Wednesday.

Deepak Bhattacharya, who had left his house on Tuesday to pay a phone bill, was shocked to hear from his family that they were preparing to cremate a dead body they thought was his, the Press Trust of India reported.

The mix-up in the central Indian city of Raipur occurred after police called the family about an hour after Bhattacharya had left his home and asked them to identify a corpse.

“Bhattacharya’s brother-in-law identified the body and took it home for the last rites,” Superintendent of Police Sashi Mohan Singh told the news agency.

As the rituals were being performed for his cremation, Bhattacharya, who is in his 50s, happened to call home, stunning everyone there.

Bhattacharya said he told his daughter, “I am alive. How can you cremate me?”

Funerals in India are usually conducted on the same day as a person dies.

The confusion was caused by the fact that the dead man and Bhattacharya looked very similar, police said.

New Delhi, Thursday, AFP