skeleton human remains
Indian engineer living in the US for 20 years returned home to Mumbai and was shocked to see mother's skeleton remains in the locked apartment - Representational image Istock

In a shocking discovery, a man from Mumbai, India returned home from the US on Sunday (6 July) only to find his mother's skeletal remains in the bedroom of the locked apartment.

Police suspect the 63-year-old woman, who lived on the top floor of the apartment building alone, could have died of natural causes as there were no injury marks on her body.

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The decomposed body has been sent for post-mortem, police added. The deceased has been identified as Asha Sahani.

Rituraj Sahani, an Engineer by profession who had moved to the US about two decades ago, told police that he reached their Oshiwara flat in Mumbai on Sunday morning and found the door locked from inside. His repeated calls to his mother remained unanswered following which he sought help from a key maker and managed to open the apartment door.

On entering his mother's bedroom, he found her decomposed body lying on the bed.

Police said that the condition of the body suggests the woman had died a few weeks ago. The death remained undetected as the only two apartments on the top floor of the building belonged to the Sahanis and the woman lived alone on that floor.

"In the bedroom, Rituraj found the body of his mother, which had decomposed to such an extent that only her skeleton remained. We suspect she must have passed away at least a few weeks ago," Subhash Khanvilkar, senior inspector, Oshiwara police station, said.

"Asha K Sahani had been staying alone at her 10th floor residence in Wells Cot society in Andheri's Lokhandwala area since her husband died in 2013.

"Their son Rituraj, an engineer, had moved to the US in 1997. The last conversation between the mother and son took place in April 2016. At that point, Sahani had told him that she felt lonely. She had also asked him to get her into an old-age home," the officer added.

Police are currently awaiting the post-mortem report to ascertain the actual cause of her death, The Indian Express reported. They are also recording statements of Rituraj and the neighbours.