Varanasi women found living with mother’s body

Police said Pallavi, 27, and Vaishnavi, 18, kept the body of Usha Tiwari, 52, under a quilt instead of informing anyone or performing the last rites

Two women have been found living with the body of their mother, who died a year back in December last year, at Madarwan in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi, a police officer said on Thursday.

Police said the daughters did not have money to cremate their mother’s body. (Getty Images)

Police said Pallavi, 27, and Vaishnavi, 18, kept the body of Usha Tiwari, 52, under a quilt instead of informing anyone or performing the last rites. The matter came to light when the woman’s sister and brother-in-law, Upasana and Dharmendra Chaturvedi, visited their home on Wednesday. The daughters refused to let the guests in and forced the brother-in-law to inform the police.

Shivakant Mishra, a local police officer, said they broke open the door and found Tiwari’s body. He added the daughters told them that their mother died of illness and they did not have money to cremate her body. Mishra said Pallavi has a master’s degree while Vaishnavi is a high school student.

Deputy police commissioner RS Gautam said that Pallavi and Vaishnavi are with Upasana and Chaturvedi. He added Tiwari’s post-mortem was being conducted.

Police said Pallavi and Vaishnavi’s father, Ramkrishna Pandey, lives in Lucknow. Usha Tiwari ran a cosmetics shop, which was her only source of income. The shop was closed during the Covid-19 pandemic.