The Malad clinic where the corpse was found on Monday
Mumbai: Two days after the corpse of an 80-year-old man who died in 2022 was found in a Malad clinic’s freezer, his family carried out his funeral on Wednesday after some persuasion by police.
Senior police officials said they consulted with govt doctors as to whether a postmortem examination was necessary. Doctors said it wasn’t needed as the family possessed documents certifying the death to be natural. The family told police they had learnt about the cryonics centre in the US from a friend who was also considering preserving the remains of his kin.
Police did not file any formal charges against the city-based family. The man had died of natural causes, leaving his adult children deeply disturbed. The family wanted to send his remains to a cryonics centre in the US to be preserved as long as possible. In the interim, they arranged for the body to be kept in a freezer at a polyclinic in Malad East, but neither the family nor the clinic management informed the local police station about the decision. The body continued to remain at the Malad clinic in the meantime and the family organised for the freezer and and the preservation at a substantial sum.
Police then took a no-objection certificate from the man’s wife before the corpse was moved to an electric crematorium. TOI had reported about police finding the corpse at the clinic late on Monday after being tipped off by locals. It was only when the property was to go for redevelopment that the matter reached police through locals on Monday night.
They said they started communicating with govt departments in India to find out the procedure for overseas transportation of a body. They also got in touch with a cryonics centre in the US to understand the costs involved. Subsequently, the family decided to look for another cryonics centre.