Nagpur: Seven months after Sheshrao Mankar, 62, was found dead on a Kamgar Nagar footpath and later buried by police as an unidentified corpse, his body was exhumed and handed over to the family for a dignified cremation on Friday. Mankar, a former employee of Nagpur Improvement Trust, had gone missing on February 5 and his daughters led a relentless search after lodging a police complaint, but couldn’t find him even as his body lay in Mayo Hospital mortuary freezer for 72 hours, as per police protocol, before an unceremonious burial at Mokshadham Ghat.Cops had sent out a wireless message to every station asking whether any missing person matched the body’s description in the morgue. None did. With no claimant, a quick burial followed on February 9.On February 5, Mankar hired an auto-rickshaw from Subhashnagar, to reach Kamgar Colony in Rana Pratap Nagar — his own neighbourhood. The driver, police suspect, mistook Kamgar Colony for Kamgar Nagar and dropped him on a North Nagpur footpath, where he suffered a cardiac arrest and died.Initially, Kapil Nagar police registered the case as accidental death, but his identity remained unknown. On the following day, Mankar’s daughters, unaware about his death, walked into Lakadganj police station to lodge a missing complaint.Lakadganj cops too registered a missing complaint and alerted all police stations without knowing about a body found in Kamgar Nagar.After several weeks, Kapil Nagar and Lakadganj police coordinated with each other and approached Mankar’s daughters. Kapil Nagar officers showed the family a photograph. The daughters recognised their father.DNA samples were collected from the man’s daughter for a match with the body’s autopsy sample and sent to Regional Forensic Science Laboratory (RFSL). Cops collected DNA samples of Mankar’s son and again sent to the lab. After the samples matched, police moved in. By then, the burial was 7 months old.Joint CP Navinchandra Reddy said “the dead have a right to a customary cremation, and when family is present, that right must be honoured,” he said, adding he instructed his officers accordingly.The file moved to the collectorate. Senior Inspector Ade and Sub-inspector Deshmukh handled the correspondence.The tehsildar issued the exhumation order, and an executive magistrate was deputed to oversee it.On September 4 — exactly seven months on — a grave at Mokshadham Ghat was opened. Son Akshay and daughters Pallavi, Ekta and Ankita stood as the remains were dug out, a panchnama drawn, and the body formally handed to the family. They took him to the cremation section of Mokshadham Ghat and lit the pyre.“In a city that often buries the nameless and moves on, Kapil Nagar police went back for one man so his children could say a final goodbye,” said senior police inspector Ade.
