CHENNAI: This was no call from the afterworld. But 28-year-old Ganga Devi will have a lot of explaining to do when she returns home.

The homemaker, who went missing from the city on July 13 and was believed to be dead, after the Kaveripakkam police in Vellore district found a highly decomposed body of a woman dumped in a sack last Wednesday, called relatives on Saturday night to inform them that she was alive.

The missing woman’s husband Saravanan, a software engineer from Thiruvanmiyur, and his family misidentified the victim as his wife, Ganga Devi, who went missing on July 13.

Ganga Devi was with her lover in a hotel in Coimbatore when she read reports that she had been murdered. Her family was making arrangements to claim the body from the police.

Police said Saravanan was not convinced that the woman in the sack was his wife but concluded that it could be her after relatives said she appeared to look like Ganga Devi. The woman in the sack was naked and was wearing only a chain with a pendant and a wristband when police found the body.

"The body was too decomposed to make a conclusive identification and we decided to run DNA tests to determine if she really was Saravanan’s wife," said an investigating officer.

Police said Ganga Devi telephoned her brother Sugumaran to inform him that she was alive. She said she was afraid to return home because her family knew that she had been with her lover Karthik, a neighbour of Ganga Devi’s parents in Tirunindravur. "Since the family members were demanding her body, she decided to inform them that she was alive," the officer said.

'Missing' woman to arrive in city today

After reports that Ganga Devi was dead, her return has surprised many. "The woman and her lover ran out of money in Coimbatore," he said. "Ganga Devi said she would return with money that Karthik earned doing odd jobs during their five-day stay in Coimbatore."

She was to board a train from Coimbatore on Sunday and arrive in the city on Monday. The Kaveripakkam police will now have to go back to their case files and restart the probe to identify the woman who was killed and assumed to be Ganga Devi.

Talking about the probe after the woman’s body was found, an investigating officer said that Saravanan was not convinced that the woman in the sack was his wife. But he concluded that it could be Ganga Devi after relatives said she appeared to look like her.

The body was highly decomposed and police could not identify the victim, Kaveripakkam inspector M Somasundaram said. "She appeared to have been killed at least four days before her body was discovered," he said. "Her body was swollen. We could find no trace of external injuries. "

