Shocked household cremated their ‘lifeless son’ and located him alive in jail weeks later

A man who was thought to be dead was discovered sitting in a jail cell weeks after his family thought they had cremated the 35-year-old’s remains

A family cremated their “dead son” only to receive a shocking call weeks later revealing he was alive and sitting in jail.

Ravi Kumar, 35, disappeared from his home in India, prompting his worried family to report him missing to police. Officers later showed relatives photographs of a badly decomposed body discovered in a wetland area. Despite the corpse being difficult to recognise, Ravi’s family believed they could identify him from what he was wearing.

His brother Amandeep said: “Though the face was disfigured, we identified him by his clothes.” The devastated family cremated the body on 13 August and held a memorial service in Kapurthala, Punjab, two days later. Ravi had been missing since 5 August.

But on 2 September, they received an astonishing phone call from Kapurthala Central Jail. Staff told them Ravi was alive and had been locked up there since the very day he disappeared. Amandeep said: “We were shocked and relieved at the same time.”

Ravi later told his family he had been picked up by police for loitering on 5 August and transferred to the jail that evening. A senior officer said he had been arrested for bailable offences. Jail staff eventually contacted his family because nobody had come forward to post bail.

Relatives, from Kadupur village, rushed to visit the prison the following day and confirmed the inmate was indeed Ravi. But his remarkable reappearance has left police wondering whose body the family cremated. Officers are now desperately trying to identify the remains.

Police spokesperson DSP Sheetal Singh said: “We now have an unidentified corpse with no matching missing persons report and no clear leads.

“DNA testing isn’t viable at this stage, so we are reviewing technical evidence, including cell tower dump data from the Kanjhli wetland, to establish the deceased’s identity.” He added that Ravi’s family would be summoned for questioning. The investigation continues.

The development comes after a mother ‘reappeared’ more than two decades after she went missing while doing Christmas shopping.

Michele Hundley Smith left her three children, then aged seven, 14 and 19 alone and they did not see her again for nearly 25 years. Michele’s disappearance from North Carolina, was investigated by police and the FBI. Earlier this year, Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office has confirmed she was “alive and well”.

Her shocked family were left wondering what happened back in 2001, as it’s been revealed she’s been leading a double life, with an eerie reason for leaving, according to the The Guardian.

Speaking to local broadcaster WFMYNews2, her cousin Barbara Byrd said: “I kind of want to go outside and scream ‘she’s alive, she’s alive’. For years, we didn’t know if we were grieving or waiting… My biggest question to her is ‘What happened all those years ago in December? What made you leave? What happened?”

In an official statement, the Sheriff’s Office confirmed Smith had asked for her location to be kept private. Barbara added: “I understand and respect that she doesn’t want any of us to contact her. I’m not angry. The biggest answer I had today was she was alive. Nothing else matters right at this moment.”