Police in Morang have been forced to reopen an old accident case after Padam Bahadur Raya of Letang returned home nearly five months after being presumed dead.
The 37-year-old Raya, who was believed to have died in June and subsequently cremated by his family, has been found alive. However, the identity of the person whose body was mistaken for his and cremated remains unknown.
Raya, a resident of Kheruwa in Letang Municipality-5, was presumed dead by his family, who then performed his last rites.
The family also received Rs 550,000 in accident insurance compensation following his presumed death. However, Raya’s return home six months after the incident has raised questions about the identification of the body and the insurance payout, both of which now need to be re-examined.
Superintendent of Police (SP) Kavit Katuwal, chief of Morang Police, told Setopati that police have begun reviewing old photographs and videos related to the incident after the family confirmed that Raya was alive.
“After the family confirmed that he had returned alive, we began investigating the case again by reviewing photographs and videos,” Katuwal told Setopati. “Sometimes, this happens when family members identify a body as their own relative during the identification process. They had received Rs 550,000 in insurance compensation. They have said that they will return it. They have been cooperating well with us.”
Katuwal said that the investigation would now focus on two questions: Who was the person whose body was kept at the hospital at that time, and how did the family identify that person as Raya?
The incident occurred on the Chatara-Pakali road section in Barahachhetra Municipality-4 of Sunsari district.
According to police, a pedestrian was seriously injured after being hit by a motorcycle around 8:30 a.m. on June 9.
The injured person was taken to Birat Teaching Hospital in Budhiganga for treatment. After the person died during treatment, the body was kept at the mortuary of Koshi Hospital. As the deceased could not be identified, police issued a public notice asking relatives to come forward.
Following the notice, Raya’s mother visited the hospital and identified the body as that of her son. After completing the necessary procedures based on her identification, police handed the body over to the family. The family cremated the body on June 10.
The family subsequently completed mourning and funeral rites, believing that Raya had died in the accident.
Now that he has returned alive, identifying the person who died at the hospital has become essential.
According to the Area Police Office, Letang, Raya had been away from home since January. Police learned from his family that he had a habit of leaving home for extended periods.
It was reported that his wife separated from him after their marriage, after which Raya did not regularly stay at home. Because he had been away for long periods, his family had little information about his whereabouts.
Police suspect that, under these circumstances, his mother may have mistaken the body of the person killed in the accident for her son’s when she went to identify it.
