A decomposed body, suspected to be that of missing Bengaluru native Suraj Lama, has been recovered from a forest near the Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT) premises at Kalamassery in Kochi on Sunday morning.
According to the police, the body was found during the search for Suraj, who had
been reported missing since October 10. Suraj, who ran a restaurant in Kuwait, reportedly suffered memory loss and speech impairment due to alcohol poisoning and was deported to Kochi instead of Bengaluru.
Following his arrival at the Kochi airport on October 5, Suraj was admitted to Ernakulam Medical College in Kalamassery. However, he went missing from the hospital on October 10. His son Santon had reached Kochi and searched for him, but without success. He later filed a habeas corpus petition in Kerala High Court, which directed the police to form a special investigation team to locate the missing man.
Kalamassery police told The Telegraph that the body was in an advanced stage of decomposition, suggesting that the man must have died at least 45 days ago.
“The clothes Suraj was last seen wearing matched the description of the body. An official confirmation will be made only after his son identifies the body and post-mortem and DNA tests are conducted,” a police officer said. Santon is expected to reach Kochi late on Sunday to identify the body.
On August 14, 23 people died in Kuwait after consuming spurious liquor. The
Kuwaiti authorities later arrested 67 people involved in the illegal production and distribution network and deported them to their respective countries.