Hoping of a miracle, superstitious mom hides son's body

The incident reflects the prevailing superstition in society as well as motherly love. Mamta, whose only son Balyogi succumbed to lung infection on Tuesday, refused to allow her relatives to cremate the body and hid him in her room labouring under the belief that he would soon live.

The police had to break the lock two days later, to make it possible for the body to be cremated.

Balyogi was a student of the 11th grade and had been ill for the last few months.
“He had an infection in his lung, which worsened recently. He died on Tuesday,” said the relatives.

Mamta, a poor and illiterate woman who had lost her husband a few years ago, was shattered by the death of her son. “She fainted several times after hearing the news,” said her neighbours.

According to the neighbours, the grieving mother believed in exorcism. She hid the body in her room, locking the door from the outside so none of her relatives who had gathered to attend the ceremony, could get into retrieve the body to conduct the last rites.

“Let him (Balyogi) sleep, he will be alive very soon,” Mamta told the relatives and neighbours.

The neighbours believed that her actions may have been the result of her talking to a tantric. The police who were informed by Mamta’s neighbours, faced fierce opposition from her when they attempted to break open the locks and recover the body.

“The body had been hidden in a closet inside the room,” said the police. Though the body has now been consigned to flames, the grief-stricken mother still believes her son will return to her.