Septuagenarian Amravati Devi, a resident of Varanasi town, about 300 km from Lucknow, would never have imagined that her sons will try to make money out of her death.

Amravati, whose husband was a retired government servant and had died a few years back, got a monthly pension of a little over Rs 18,000, an amount enough to make her sons keep her body after her death for four months to enable them to continue receiving the money.

The matter came to light after the neighbours complained of the sharp stench emanating from Amravati's house, they then informed the police.

The police found Amravati's body on a cot inside the house, sources said.

Police said that Amravati had died in January this year but her three sons, who lived with her, refused to cremate her body saying that she had slipped into a coma and would regain consciousness soon.

The family had stopped meeting people and interacting with the neighbours since then, the police said quoting the neighbours.

Amravati's daughter told the police that her eldest brother Ravi Prakash used to collect the pension of her mother.

Prakash used to put the thumb impression of her dead mother on the form, the police said. The family had moved to the town a few years back.

The body had been sent for postmortem examination, police said and added that a case would be lodged against the three sons.