'Dead' man surfaces after 3 months, only to vanish again

CHENNAI: Panic gripped the village of Karikanthakuppam near Neelankarai on Wednesday afternoon when a resident who was found dead and cremated about four months ago walked back home.
Villagers who had participated in the cremation of Durai (45) took to their heels as soon as they spotted him walking towards them. The news of the visit from a ‘dead man’ spread like wildfire and women and children ran into
their houses.
Many curiously watched his feet to check if they touched the ground. Not even his wife and four children were ready to believe that it was him, standing at the door in flesh and blood.
Durai, who often disappeared from home for days, last went missing from the village in July this year and was later ‘found’ dead inside the Buckingham Canal in early August. He was identified by his family, who then cremated him.
Even when Durai reassured his family and the village heads that he was not dead, they insisted that he come to the temple because they believe ghosts can’t enter temples. Only when Durai walked into the temple did the village heads take him seriously.
The police team which had assisted the family in identifying his ‘body’, fished out of the Buckingham Canal, rushed to the village and questioned him.
Police are now faced with the task of finding the identity of the man who was mistaken to be Durai and cremated.
Durai, meanwhile, told his family that all this while he had been living in a temple in Melmalayannoor of Villupuram district and earned his livelihood by working as a coolie. But following the recent spells of rain, he became worried about his family which lived by the sea and decided to return. The family member, in turn, told Durai that they had already availed of his insurance compensation and that they would have to return it.
While the family scratched its head over how to cough up the compensation money and the police over how to identify the person who was actually cremated (Thoraipakkam assistant commissioner of police K N Murali said the photographs of the body taken during the inquest would be circulated), the village, which was yet to get over the surprise, was treated to another piece of drama.
But this was a drama Karikanthakuppam was familiar with. On Wednesday night, barely hours after returning home, Durai went missing again. He had not returned till late Thursday evening.