‘Dead’ man turns up alive and well eight months after he was CREMATED in India in case of mistaken identity

• Police from Margao in Goa found Deepak Balakrishnan Kandi in a hotel Tuesday 
• They had been on the lookout after they realised the cremated body was not his 

A 36-year-old man from India who was declared dead and then cremated has turned up alive and well eight months later in a case of mistaken identity.

Police from the town of Margao in Goa found Deepak Balakrishnan Kandi in a hotel in the old station road area on Tuesday night.

He was then transferred to the custody of Kerala police, who had been on the lookout after they realised that the cremated body was not his, The Times of India reports.

Police sources said that Deepak went missing on June 7 last year from the town of Meppayur, which is in the Kerala district and around 540km south of Margao.

Margao in Goa, India (file photo)

A missing person’s report was filed at the local police station.

However, on July 17, the body of a man recovered from a beach in Kerala was wrongfully identified as Deepak.

Deepak’s family performed the final rites, but days later, Kerala police realised the  cremated body in fact belonged to Irshad, a native of Panthirkkara in Kerala, who had also gone missing.

Police from the town of Margao in Goa, police found Deepak Balakrishnan Kandi (pictured) in a hotel in the old station road area on Tuesday night

A DNA test conducted on samples of Deepak’s remains confirmed the police’s case of mistaken identity.

A manhunt was then launched and the investigation was taken over by the crime branch.

On Tuesday, Margao town police were engaged in routine surveillance of hotels.

During a random check of the guestlist of a hotel along the old station road, they stumbled upon an Aadhar number – a unique identity number that can be obtained voluntarily by the citizens of India and resident foreign nationals – that gave away Deepak’s identity.

He was arrested and Kerala police then arrived and took him into their custody.

Deepak told police that he had travelled to various places, including Jaipur, Delhi and Punjab, before arriving in Goa recently.

He also said he had done some casual work in Bogmalo, a village in Goa.

Deepak moved to the hotel in Margao, where he eventually fell on to the radar of the police, bringing his eight-month disappearing act to a close.

At the Margao police station on Wednesday, when reporters told him that his final rights had been performed, Deepak grinned and said it was the first he had heard of it, before the Kerala police officers took him away.

Street in Margao, Goa (file photo)

In May 2021, an elderly woman in India narrowly avoided being burned alive in another case of mistaken identity. 

The woman, identified as Shakuntala Gaikwad, tested positive for Covid. 

Her family took her to Silver Jubilee Hospital in Baramati but the wards were full so they were turned away, Yahoo reported.  

As they waited for an ambulance she became unconscious and the family thought she had died and prepared her for cremation.

But moments before the fire was lit, Shakuntala woke up on her own funeral bier in a panic and started crying.

Local police confirmed the story.

She was later transported back to the hospital for treatment.

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