The neighbours complained of a foul smell.
Gauri Mishra, who is almost immobile and partially blind due to old age, had been sleeping beside her son Babuli Mishra's body for more than four days. The matter came to light when neighbours in Chend Colony complained of a smell. Police recovered the decomposed body Thursday evening.
"Residents of Chend Colony area complained of a foul smell coming from the house. When we broke open the house, we found an old woman sleeping near a decomposed corpse," said Ranjan Kumar Pattnaik, an officer of the Chend Colony Police Station.
Police suspect that Babuli committed suicide and said that his mother, who is in her eighties, was almost immobile and suffered from partial blindness.
"The old woman was lying there as she was not in a position to move. She was making some feeble sounds to wake her son up," he added.
The police have registered a case of unnatural death and the old woman has been admitted in the Rourkela government hospital, the official said.
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