Hyderabad, Oct. 4: Syed Abdul Gafoor had divorced his wife because she insisted they live apart from his mother. But the English professor wouldn’t let even death separate him from his ammi.

So, when Zarina Begum died, Gafoor ? then in his early 40s ? sprayed perfume over the body and gently wrapped it in a piece of cloth. Then he put it inside a glass case in his library.

In that case she lay for 20 years while the son ? shunned by family and neighbours and pressured by the village headman ? stood guard over her devotedly.

“He used perfumes and chemicals to preserve the body,” said district superintendent of police Y. Nagi Reddy.

The glass case was opened last Saturday when Gafoor passed away at his home. Mother and son were united again as the villagers ? with grudging respect for Gafoor in a society that reveres motherhood ? buried them in a single grave, one foot apart, “in keeping with the professor’s last wish”.

His neighbours had shifted residence because of the smell, which the perfume couldn’t smother, and for fear that their children would catch an infection.

“The nearest occupied house was half a furlong away,” said Parvati, Gafoor’s devoted housemaid.

“Twice the panchayat and local officials had tried to persuade him to give the body up for burial, but he threatened to commit suicide,” said the professor’s nephew, Siddiqui.

But the villagers wouldn’t let the local police use force.

“Criminal law says a body must be cremated or buried within 24 hours of death ? maybe 48 hours under special circumstances,” said a senior police officer, Gopinath Reddy.

Zarina had died in 1985 at Thanjavur, where Gafoor taught English at a college. Three years ago, when he retired, he returned to his native village Siddavatta in Kadapa district, Andhra Pradesh. He brought the body along.

“My sahib spent most of his time in the room (where the body lay) but wouldn’t let anyone else in,” Parvati said.

The professor himself never went out into a world that had shunned him, making contact with it only through the housemaid and a postman who brought him his pension.

“Sahib used to receive parcels from Chennai and Bangalore. He used to pour the liquids and powders in and around the glass case,” Parvati said. “The case was kept among his books, which ran into thousands.”

To keep insects and ants away, Gafoor fumigated the room regularly.

“Every month, two persons came from Chennai with pesticide containers. They took away the empty cans and left behind new ones,” added the postman, Ghasiuddin.

When the villagers entered the library, they found what was virtually a skeleton with a thin layer of skin covering it. The teeth had fallen off and the hair had shrivelled into a few wispy strands.

Although none of Gafoor’s relatives visited the house during his lifetime, after his death they pounced on whatever property he had. “They took away all his books, clothes and money; they left only the kitchen vessels for me,” Parvati said.

Children and women avoided the road near the house. “Not because they were afraid of ghosts,” explained a villager, “but because of all the pesticides and chemicals the professor used. They had given a few children skin ulcers that looked like burns.”

A woman said a few children had also complained of the foul smell and insects around the house.

The district administration tried to explain why no action had been taken by saying it wasn’t told.

“Such things do happen in villages; many things do not come to our knowledge till it’s very late,” said police superintendent Nagi Reddy.

“We came to know about this on Sunday,” added district collector Ashok Kumar.