'Dead' man appears at funeral after family takes wrong body for cremation!

• Prakash's family was relieved to see him alive.

A family in Jaipur was shocked to see their 'dead' kin alive when they were preparing for his cremation. The gaffe occurred after the family wrongly identified the body of a 40-year-old man assuming it to be their kin named Vijay Prakash. Resemblance in appearance and alcohol addiction of both, the deceased and Prakash, led to the confusion when Galta Gate police found the body of a drunkard, who had died after falling off stairs of a shopping complex. "Vijay Prakash lives near Transport Nagar and is also a habitual drinker.He often passes out around the same shopping complex after drinking liquor. His family members came and identified him as Vijay. We handed over the body after the postmortem," said Hanuman Sahay, investigation officer of Galta Gate police station.

But Prakash who was alive, woke up the next day and saw that his nephew named Suresh was heading out somewhere. "I asked Suresh where he was going. He looked shocked and replied that he was going in my cremation. I was taken aback and asked him how could you arrange for my cremation when I am still alive," Prakash said. He added, "Suresh took me to Dausa where cremation rituals had already begun."

Prakash's family was relieved to see him alive and realized that the body they had carried from Jaipur, belonged to somebody else. "The family and his relatives came to Jaipur with the body and handed over the body. We have kept the unidentified body at the mortuary," an official said.

Prakash's family revealed that they feared he would die in similar way someday due to excessive drinking as he would pass out often at the same spot where the body was discovered, according to TOI report.