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How an old Nokia phone helped identify years oldskeletal remains at Hyderabad house
The deceased has been identified as Ameer Khan, who reportedly died ten years ago.
The skeletal remains of a middle-aged man were found in a house in Telangana's Hyderabad on Monday. The house, located in the city's Nampally market area, was in a dilapidated condition.
The deceased has been identified as Ameer Khan, who reportedly died ten years ago, an NDTV report quoted the police as saying. The house belonged to his father Muneer Khan, who had nine other children. Ameer lived alone in the house while the rest of the family had moved somewhere else.
The remains were discovered after a youth entered the house to retrieve a cricket ball. The youth, a local resident, made a video of the house, wherein the skeleton is seen lying on the floor of the kitchen.
He also informed local residents, who called the police. Following this, a team from the Habeebnagar Police Station arrived at the house and broke open the door, PTI news agency reported.
Nokia phone helps discover identity of the deceased
A mobile phone, which was switched off, was recovered by the police from near the skeletal remains. The phone was discharged when it was found. When the police switched it on, they found over 80 missed calls from 2015 and several contacts on the device.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Kishan Kumar said that the phone suggested that the skeletal remains were those of Ameer, NDTV reported.
Kumar reportedly said that Ameer was possibly “mentally disturbed”, adding that no signs of struggle were found on the spot. “It may have been a natural death,” he said.
Preliminary investigation reveals that the deceased was unmarried and living alone, with his sibling telling police that his family had lost contact with him and assumed that he had relocated, according to PTI.
Kumar said that it appeared that his siblings had not tried to contact him. Apart from the phone, demonetised currency notes were also found under a pillow in the house.
Further investigation in the case is underway, with a CLUES team – a unit focused on scientific and forensic parts of the crime scene probe – collecting samples from the spot.
