orphan

Tardeo

Vrindavan Society building

MP Mill compound

blood relatives

Tardeo police station

HIV

10 days after 18-year-old’s death, body lies in mortuary as police wait for a blood relative.It’s a curious case of an 18-year-old who, for most of his short life, lived as an, but when he died, several people calling themselves his relatives have turned up to claim the body. The police, however, are wary of such claims as they suspect the ‘relatives’ may be eyeing his 250-sq-ft flat in ahighrise. That’s the reason the police have not yet released Nitesh Shinde’s body even 10 days after he died of unknown reasons.Nitesh was found dead by his neighbours at his flat ininon August 12. His body has been lying in the Nair Hospital mortuary since then.Four people have so far approached the police to claim Nitesh’s body but, according to the cops, none of them has been able to prove that they are hisSome of the relatives claim that the police are asking them to give in writing that they are claiming only the body and not the property of the deceased.“It’s 10 days since his body has been lying in the mortuary, but the police are not handing it over to us. We have written to them several times, but they are asking us to mention in the letter that we would not ask for the property even if the body is given to us,’’ said Sandip Pote, a distant relative.The police, on their part, claim that the body can only be handed over to a blood relative. “We are waiting for a close relative to come forward. We cannot hand over the body to anyone without examining the evidence that he or she is indeed a blood relative of the youth,” said Sanjay Surve, senior inspector atAccording to the residents of the Vrindavan Society building, Nitesh was five when his parents died of. A few years later, his sister also died of the same disease. After his parents’ death, Nitesh lived with his grandmother and a maternal aunt. While his grandmother died of old age about four years back, his aunt succumbed to an illness nearly one-and-a-half years ago. The Tardeo flat, where he had been living till his death, belonged his grandmother.Jivan Shinde, a neighbour, said, “He had studied till HSC. He had recently started working as an assistant in a private clinic. He would stay alone and cook for himself. I had met him a night before he died, and he looked fine. However, the next day when we knocked on his door to inquire if he needed anything to eat, there was no response. After waiting for an hour, I informed the society members who called the police. When we broke open the door, we found him lying unconscious on the bed. We rushed him to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead.’’“Many of his distant relatives, who were never in touch with him, have now started emerging from nowhere to claim his body. They are doing so, probably, to stake claim to his flat. Everyone comes and asks for the keys of the flat which is with the police,’’ said Pankaj Kokate, secretary of Vrindavan Society.