Kapurthala: Imagine performing the last rites of your son, grieving his death and trying to come to terms with the loss only to receive a phone call days later saying he is alive.
That is exactly what happened to a family in Punjab’s Kapurthala.
Ravi Kumar had gone missing from his home on August 5. His family searched for him, but when they could not find him, they approached the police and filed a missing person report at Kapurthala City Police Station on August 11.
Soon after, police informed the family about a burnt body that had been recovered. The relatives were shown photographs of the body and, believing it was Ravi, identified it as their missing son.
The family then went through what they thought was the most painful moment of their lives. They cremated the body on August 13.
For the next couple of weeks, they believed Ravi was gone. Then came the phone call that changed everything.
On September 2, a staff member from Kapurthala Central Jail contacted the family with an unbelievable message Ravi Kumar was alive and was lodged in the jail.
The family was stunned. The man they had mourned and cremated was apparently sitting behind prison walls.
Ravi had reportedly been arrested by Jalandhar Police about a month earlier in a loitering related case and was later sent to Kapurthala Central Jail. Somehow, his family did not know that he was there.
The next day, the family went to the jail. What they saw there finally put an end to their confusion Ravi was alive.
The bizarre turn of events has now left several unanswered questions. Most importantly, how did a burnt body come to be identified as Ravi in the first place? And who was the person whose body the family ultimately cremated?
The available reports have not yet provided a clear explanation for the identification mix up, and authorities are expected to establish how the mistake happened.
For Ravi’s family, however, the shock is difficult to put into words. Within weeks, they went from searching desperately for their missing son, to believing he was dead, to performing his cremation and then discovering that he was alive all along.
A case that seemed to have ended with a funeral has suddenly reopened with one astonishing fact: Ravi Kumar is alive. He was in jail all this time.
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