In Kolkata, son preserves body of octogenarian mother

Kolkata: The body of an 84-year-old woman was recovered from a freezer in her house in Kolkata’s Behala locality, almost three years after she passed away.

According to the Kolkata Police, Bina Majumdar passed away on April 7, 2015 and since then her body had been stored in a freezer on the ground floor of the house on James Long Sarani in Behala. Her husband Gopal Majumdar (89) and son Shubhabrata Majumdar (43) live in the two-storied house.

Nilanjan Biswas, Deputy Commissioner of Kolkata Police (Behala) said that Shubhabrata had been detained and was being questioned. “He has told us that he believed that his mother will come alive some day,” Mr Biswas said.

Another angle the police is investigating is whether the body was preserved to withdraw her pension. Both Gopal and Bina Majumdar were former employees of Food Corporation of India. A debit card linked to the pension account of Bina Majumdar has been recovered from the son’s possession.

“We have contacted the bank for more details,” Mr. Biswas said. Shubhabrata Biswas is a leather technologist and a lot of chemicals were recovered from the house, apart from two freezers, including the one that contained the body.

In June 2015, a resident of Robinson Street in the city was found living with the skeleton of his sister for months.