Unable to afford funeral, man leaves partner’s body on roadside

Chennai: Unable to arrange money for the funeral, a 65-year-old man stuffed his live-in partner’s body in a sack and abandoned it on the roadside near Pallavaram on Thursday.

The incident came to light after residents noticed a sack lying on Mukkanni Amman Koil Street in Trisulam and alerted the Pallavaram police. Officers found the body of an elderly woman with her hands and legs tied, and sent it to Tambaram Government Hospital for postmortem.

Investigations identified the deceased as Bhakhyalakshmi, 75, a resident of the locality. Police said she had been living in poverty after the death of her husband 12 years ago and was not supported by any of her 10 children. She earned a living by selling flowers.

During this period, she befriended Mohamed Hassan, 65, who worked at a hotel in Trisulam, and the two had been living together, police said. Hassan recently lost his job after several hotels were shut due to a shortage of cooking gas cylinders, pushing the couple into further financial distress. Bhakhyalakshmi died of illness on Wednesday. With no money to perform the last rites, Hassan packed the body in a sack and left it by the roadside, hoping that someone would arrange the funeral.

He told police that he acted out of helplessness and did not expect the matter to turn into a police case.

Police are continuing their inquiry.