Man believed to be dead, found alive

Udhagamandalam: A 70-year-old destitute man, who was believed dead and whose family performed the ‘last rites’, has been found alive. Now, police are trying to identify the body that was mistakenly buried.
According to police, Rajendran, 70, went missing 20 days ago. As he used to visit his house on and off for a couple of days, his family members didn’t lodge a police complaint but informed them that he had gone missing.
On March 14, a decomposed body was found hanging from a tree near Yedappali.
“Maragatham, the daughter-in-law of Rajendran, identified the decomposed body as that of her father-in-law. After the postmortem, the body was handed over to the family,” police said.
The body was buried at the Vannapettai graveyard. However, a local press reporter, who has often seen Rajendran loitering around at the Coonoor bus stand and learned about his ‘death’ through police, spotted him on Wednesday at the bus stand. He immediately informed the Coonoor police.
In a face-saving measure, police reunited Rajendran with his family members. They also exhumed the body for a re-postmortem.tnn