Following a fresh complaint of suspected human sacrifice of an elderly lady with the Keezhalavalu police station, the district officials on Thursday exhumed a body from an irrigation tank where granite boulders were dumped.

K. Veerammal of Chinna Malampatti had recently given a petition to the Legal Commissioner, U. Sagayam, complaining that her mother, Annakodi, aged around 70 years, went missing in 2010 when she went to collect old age pension.

She had lodged a complaint with the police who had asked her to provide details about people whom she suspected behind the missing of her mother. Veerammal found her mother’s body between two granite boulders dumped on Chinna Kottankulam tank amid thorny bushes in 2012.

The Melur Deputy Superintendent of Police, T. Mangaleswaran, said that the woman had taken her mother’s spectacles and some bottle of eye drops the deceased had used from the said spot. “She suspects that her mother could have been sacrificed,” he added.

The police recovered a skull and a few pieces of bones from the site. They also found another eye-drop bottle and a box used by the deceased.

The exhumation was done in the presence of the Melur Tahsildar, Krishnan.

The police have already recovered eight bodies from a burial ground after a complaint of human sacrifice lodged by a former employee of PRP Granites, against the granite baron, P.R. Palanichamy and three of his employees.

However, this time the body was taken out from an unusual place. The body would be sent for forensic examination.