02 February 2023 , 18:01
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A man believed to be dead turned up alive eight months after his cremation in a shocking case of mistaken identity.
Deepak Balakrishnan Kandi was officially declared dead following his cremation ceremony before police discovered him alive in the town of Margao in Goa, India.
The 36-year-old was found in a hotel in the old station road area on Tuesday night.
Police was transferred to the custody of Kerala police, who had been searching for the man after it became apparent a body cremated months earlier was not his.
Sources claim Deepak went missing on June 7 last year from the town of Meppayur, which is in the Kerala district and around 540km south of Margao.
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Sources claim Deepak went missing on June 7 last year from the town of Meppayur, which is in the Kerala district and around 540km south of Margao (Getty Images)A missing person's report was filed at the local police station before a body of a man recovered from a beach in Kerala in July and wrongfully identified as Deepak.
Deepak's family performed the final rites, but days later, police discovered the cremated body in fact belonged to Irshad, a native of Panthirkkara in Kerala, who had also gone missing.
A DNA test was then carried out to confirm the remains of the man cremated were not Deepak's and a major search was launched.
He was then discovered by officers during a routine surveillance of hotels.
The missing man's family believed they had burned his body in a cremation ceremony (Getty Images/iStockphoto)Police carried out a random check of the guestlist of a hotel along the old station road, where they found an Aadhar number - a unique identity number that can be obtained voluntarily by the citizens of India.
Deepak told police that he had travelled around the country, including to Jaipur, Delhi and Punjab, before arriving in Goa recently.
Deepak claimed he moved to the hotel in Margao, where he eventually fell on to the radar of the police, bringing his eight-month disappearing act to a close.