An 70-year-old woman’s children had kept her decomposed body at home for the last four months to ensure they continue to receive Rs 13,000 pension in her name. Amravati Devi, 70, had passed away in January. She was living with five of her eight children, who are middle-aged.
Out of the five, four are unemployed while the fifth is a lawyer. Police discovered her body after neighbours reported a smell coming from her house in Varanasi’s Kabir Nagar on Wednesday.
“The woman’s children had kept her body in a room of their house for the last four months so they could continue to draw a pension of Rs 13,000. They told their relatives and neighbours that she was in coma,” Bhelupur circle officer Ayodhya Singh said.
Devi’s husband, Daya Prasad, who had retired as a senior official with the customs department in 1991, passed away in 2000. Devi began drawing the pension after his death. Singh said the police have sent the body for postmortem.
“We are investigating how the family was drawing the pension from the bank after the mother passed away. Prima facie, it appears they had forged documents to prove she was alive. We are waiting for the bank to submit their complaint with details about the case,” he added.