Lucknow: A 28-year-old woman earlier presumed dead after her family identified a decomposed body as hers has returned to her parental home more than two years after she went missing, forcing police to reopen an investigation that had led to a dowry-death case against her in-laws and the cremation of an unidentified woman in her name.Shivani, a resident of Navikot Nandana village under BKT tehsil, reached her family home on Saturday, 27 months after she disappeared on May 2, 2024. Her sudden reappearance has revived questions around the recovery of a badly decomposed body from a drain behind IIM Road and the sequence of events that followed.According to police, the body was found on July 16, 2024, in Sairpur police station area. Shivani’s family later identified the remains at a medical college mortuary, citing a kalava tied on the wrist and a ring on a finger. On the basis of that identification, the family performed last rites at Bhainsakund.Assistant commissioner of police (BKT) Vikas Pandey said the condition of the body made visual identification unreliable. “Since the body was decomposed and could not be recognised, the family identified it on the basis of a few things. Later, the DNA examination did not match,” Pandey said, confirming that the remains recovered near IIM Road were not Shivani’s.After Shivani went missing and the body was identified as hers, her family lodged an FIR accusing her in-laws of killing her for dowry. Police registered the case with dowry-death allegations, invoked provisions of the Dowry Prohibition Act, and added abduction-related charges. Officials said that after DNA results ruled out a match with Shivani, dowry-related provisions were removed from the FIR.With Shivani now back, investigators are rechecking the entire case file, including the initial identification, the forensic process, and the steps taken after the cremation. Police sources said Shivani told investigators she had been living in Para area with another man. The man has been identified as Javed, who reportedly maintains a municipal toilet in the locality. Sources said Shivani claimed she met him in Para and that he had urged her to return home on several occasions, but she did not.Police are now trying to establish where she stayed during the period she was missing, whether she left home voluntarily or was coerced, and what circumstances led to her return. Pandey said Shivani will be produced before a magistrate and the investigation will proceed based on her statement.Her reappearance has also highlighted a major unresolved question for investigators: if Shivani was alive, whose decomposed body was recovered near IIM Road and cremated after being mistaken for her.
