HYDERABAD: It had all the trappings of a bizarre tale but the heart-warming twist at the end banished all doubts about the
mistaken identity
of a dead person in a remote village in
Telangana
.
Pittla Yellappa (47) of Vikarabad district, a
shepherd
, was presumed dead and his family were busy making arrangements for his last rites when he showed up just as the body was to be buried, much to the shock of his family members.
But whose body was it that was handed over to the family by police? Yellappa himself cleared the air. He said his mobile phone was stolen when he was tending sheep on June 21 and the device was detected on a person whose body was found at the railway tracks. The man's face was smashed beyond recognition after he was hit by a train near Vikarabad railway station.
Police officers called up some of the numbers on the phone, found out that it belonged to Yellappa and handed over the body to his family.
On June 21, Yellappa of Navalga village had set out early in the day from his home. He often returned after a week. On June 22, the family received a call from Govt Railway Police informing them that they had found the mobile on Yellappa, who had died after being hit by a moving train.
The grief-stricken family reached Vikarabad and tried to identify the victim. "The skull was smashed in the accident. There were hardly any clothes on the body, except for his undergarment. The family claimed the body as his mobile was found near it," GRP sub-inspector K Shankaraiah told TOI.
Relatives said they started making arrangements for the
burial
in the village when an acquaintance in Tandur informed them that he had seen Yellappa alive. Yellappa too rushed to the village, taking his family members by surprise.
He was then taken to the police station and the body of the train accident victim was handed back to the officers. In the grave which was dug for Yellappa a rooster was killed and buried, as per local belief.
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