Assam: Mystery surrounds elderly woman's death in Jorhat

Shockwaves were felt in Assam’s Jorhat district after the body of an elderly woman was found at her residence. The body of the 75 year old woman, which was recovered in a decomposed state from her house, has raised questions if she was being ignored by her relations which ultimately may have led to her experiencing a lonely death. Or was it something else?

The incident took place on Monday morning, October 2, when the decomposed body of the woman was found in her house at Bahona village, close to Jorhat town. The deceased, identified as Anupama Dutta, was living with her daughter, who has been deemed mentally unstable. The deceased also has two sons who live out of the state. While one son lives in Gangtok, the other son lives in USA. 

Speaking to India Today NE, Jorhat Superintendent of Police Mohan Lal Meena said that the incident came to light when the deceased’s son, who lives in Gangtok, turned up at the house on Monday morning and got no response from his mother when he called out to her. Locals soon got wind of the matter and alerted the police. Soon police reached the spot and retrieved the decomposed body from the house, much to everyone’s shock. What is even more shocking is that the woman’s daughter was present in the house when the body was recovered. 

“The body must have been lying in the house for atleast a week or more. However, we canot be sure of that until the post mortem results come in. The daughter is said to be mentally unstable, however there is no medical proof to support it. We don’t suspect any foul play in the case so far as she was living on her own in the house and was not on much talking terms with her mother which may be why she may not have known of her mother’s death,” said the Jorhat SP. 

Meanwhile, the exact cause of death is not yet to be known. The post mortem was conducted at the Jorhat Medical College & Hospital (JMCH). However the report is yet to come in. 

Interestingly, a similar incident was also reported from Jorhat district last month. The half-decomposed body of a woman, identified as Meenu Ghosh, was recovered from her room at Bahbari village in mysterious circumstances. Locals alerted the police when a foul smell emanated from her room. Her body was also sent to the JMCH for post mortem. The deceased’s husband claimed that she was a psychiatric patient.