KOLKATA: Subhabrata
Majumdar might have had flunked his school exams but he took considerable pains and spent endless hours, studying the human body and what he claimed was his conviction in modern medical marvel that in three decades, the dead can be brought back to life.
He, in fact, learnt Russian language just so he could read certain medical journals, most of which were text books and research papers on the preservation and anatomy of human body. “Subhabrata had claimed he had to pick up Russian so that he could expand h is business. But so far, we have not found any material that suggests he had financial deals in
Russia. Instead, all the books in Russian are found to be medical journals. During questioning on Thursday night, he often broke into Russian or spoke English with a Russian accent,” the police said. The Majumdars’ house was in a shambles, dirty clothes and bed covers all over the house. “But when it came to books, he kept them in a meticulously neat order. He would suggest his father to read some books and even ask him for his feedback,” an officer said.
The police pointed out that Subhabrata had planned his investments well and in advance, when it came to his plan to preserve his mother Bina’s body. He used to share a cordial relationship with their tenants on the ground floor of their
Behala house but he began to pressure the Punjabi family to vacate the rooms, soon after he returned to Kolkata from
Vellore with his ailing mother. He wanted the rooms to be empty in advance, in case anything happened to his mother, a source said. “He ordered two industrial freezers because he did not want the risk of the electronic item malfunctioning at any time. There is still no evidence to suggest he wanted to experiment with others in the house,” said DC (Behala)
Nilanjan Sarkar. The two 2-tonne ACs he bought were kept running even during the cold winter months, indicating Subhabrata disliked experimenting while freezing his mother’s body, said a source, adding that he also ordered chemicals in huge amounts so that they lasted him quite some time.
The police pointed out Subhabrata concentrated on studies on a particular mode of preservation. “It is up to the experts to decipher his methods. Even leather industry experts said their limited knowledge of preserving skin did not allow preservation not beyond 25-30 days. We have asked experts to ascertain if he was using cryo-preservation technology,” claimed a cop.
Cryo-preservation or cryo-conservation is a process in which organelles, cells, tissues, extracellular matrix, organs or any other biological constructs, susceptible to damage, are preserved by cooling at a very low temperature (typically -80 °C using solid carbon dioxide or -196 °C using liquid nitrogen). At low enough temperature, any enzymatic or chemical activity, which might damage biological material, is effectively stopped even as formalin is used. Cryo-preservation seeks to reach low temperatures without causing additional damage, caused by the formation of ice crystals during freezing.
