Headlines
Man living with sister's corpse not utter madness'
Kolkata, June 12
A Wicca expert has said the
bizarre behaviour of the man who was living with the corpse of his
sister and two dead dogs for the past six months in Kolkata cannot be
dismissed as "utter madness".
Police stumbled on the skeletons on
Wednesday night while investigating the death of Arabinda De, the owner
of the house whose charred body was found inside a bathroom hours
earlier.
Police reached the house in south Kolkata's Shakespeare Sarani after getting a call about a fire.
The interrogation of Arabinda's son Partha De, 44, led to the discovery of the skeletons.
Police
said, prima facie, it appears Partha is "mentally unstable and refused
to cremate his sister or dispose off the dead dogs".
Besides the
maggot-infested skeletons, police also recovered audio CDs containing
some voices and 'spooky' music. There is also evidence suggesting he
used to "feed" the skeletons, police said.
Wiccan exponent Ipsita
Roy Chakraverti said the man may have created an atmosphere in the
house to summon the spirit of the dead.
"It seems as if he tried
to create an atmosphere in the house so that the spirit of the sister
could be summoned. If we consider this aspect then we can say it is a
bit worrisome."
"The family was very close. If he used to resort
to all this then I can say he will get a response. We can't dismiss this
as madness and belittle it... He might have got some response. May be
the sister used to come," Chakraverti told a TV channel.
Chakraverti
launched the Wiccan Brigade as a platform for those interested in
studying Wicca, described as a modern pagan religion.
Though
Wicca was predominantly practised by women, the Wiccan Brigade welcomes
men also. The late filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh was associated with it
since its inception in 2006.