'Missing' UP man thought dead found living with girlfriend hours before cremation

A man was found alive in Chandigarh just hours before his cremation after a headless body found in a drain in Uttar Pradesh was mistakenly identified as his.

Monty Kumar, 20, had gone missing from his home in Muzaffarnagar district on August 28. His family identified a body found in Meerut on September 9 as his based on tattoos on the neck and arms.

Nona village head Robin Chaudhary said, "When the youth's family came to know about the discovery of the body in Meerut, they thought it to be that of their son. They also staged a protest, alleging that police were not doing enough to arrest the killers.”


However, police traced Kumar to Chandigarh on Wednesday evening, where he was living with a girl who had eloped with him.

"We were continuously tracing the couple through mobile phone surveillance. The body that the family had claimed was not of the 'missing' youth," said Mansoorpur SHO Ashish Chaudhary.

The Meerut mortuary has now taken back the body.

According to police sources, Kumar was having an affair with an 18-year-old woman from the same area. She eloped with him to Chandigarh on August 28.

Her family then filed an FIR of kidnapping against Kumar at Mansoorpur police station.

"When I woke up in the morning, my daughter was not there in the house. A neighbour told me that Monty had lured her away on a motorcycle. She had taken away jewellery and Rs 50,000 with her," said the woman's father in the police complaint filed on August 31.