Gurugram – A 47-year-old man, thought to have been brutally murdered and even cremated by his family, walked back into his Gurugram home the very next day, leaving his wife, three sons, neighbours, and police stunned.
The man was identified as Poojan Prasad, a labour contractor from Mohammadpur Jharsa in Sector-36, police said. For two days, his family believed he was dead his body had been ‘recovered,’ identified, and cremated.
His sudden return has now left both his family and investigators puzzled with a chilling question: if Poojan is alive, whose body was cremated?
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The mix-up began on August 28, when police discovered a decapitated body near an abandoned warehouse just 1.5 km from Poojan’s home.
On September 1, after he didn’t return for days, his 22-year-old son Sandeep Kumar filed a missing person’s report. Police then connected him with the body they had earlier found.
At the government mortuary, police showed Sandeep the body they had recovered. He pointed out what he believed were “similar features.”
“He had an injury mark on his right leg. Incidentally, the body also had a shirt and trouser on it of similar appearance. What made me certain was that there was an injury mark on the right leg which was similar to my father’s,” HT reported.
Sandeep told police the body was his father’s and informed his family. The news shattered them. Poojan’s wife, Laxminiya, fainted on hearing it, and neighbours gathered as the family began the rituals.
The body was cremated at the Ram Bagh cremation ground on Tuesday after an autopsy confirmed it was a brutal murder the head severed and the remains mauled by stray animals.
His sons performed the last rites and even left for Delhi on Wednesday to immerse the ashes in the Yamuna. But halfway through their journey, they got a call.
Their maternal uncle, Rahul Prasad, had just spotted Poojan alive at a labour chowk in Khandsa. At first, Rahul thought his eyes were playing tricks.
He stepped out of his autorickshaw to check and was stunned to see it really was his brother-in-law. Wasting no time, he grabbed Poojan by the wrist, pulled him into the auto, and rushed him home.
When Sandeep and his elder brother Aman returned home, they were stunned to see their father sitting calmly on the bed. Overcome with emotion, they broke down in tears.
Laxminiya froze when she saw her husband at the door. “I thought I was imagining things. I fainted. When I woke up and realised he was alive, I cried all over again,” she said. Neighbours were equally shocked.
“It took me several minutes to process it I had seen the cremation myself,” said Avanish Sharma, a neighbour.
For Poojan’s family, the week has been a whirlwind of grief, disbelief, and relief. His wife Laxminiya admitted she had grown used to his drinking and frequent disappearances, but this ordeal crushed her.
“He troubled me, yes, but he was still my husband, my suhaag. I thought I had lost him forever. Seeing him alive feels like I’ve been given a second life too,” she said.
A new murder mystery unfolds
Police, just as stunned as the family, rushed to Poojan’s house. He told them he had been wandering for days, sleeping at chowks and construction sites, too drunk and careless to come back home.
His story checked out, leaving investigators back at square one someone had still been murdered and beheaded. During the autopsy, DNA samples were preserved, and police say they will now use them to identify the victim.
“It’s easier to crack a murder once the victim is identified. But when that takes time, the investigation slows down,” said Sandeep Turan, Gurugram police PRO.
Police have now registered a murder case against unknown persons at Sector-37 police station. “As per procedure, DNA samples were preserved and will be matched to confirm the victim’s identity.
The investigation is on, and the case will be solved,” Turan added.
He explained that police cannot hold back a body once a family identifies it based on clothes, scars, or marks. “Even in cases where the body is decomposed, the same rule applies.
Here too, the family was certain it was Poojan, so the body was released,” he said.
The case, however, has left many troubling questions. Who was the unknown man found murdered near Mohammad Jharsa? Why was he beheaded, and who was behind the killing? And how did both the police and a grieving family mistake his identity so completely?
