Rituraj Sahani, 43, who works at an IT company in the US, and his mother didn’t speak for a year. On Sunday, when Sahani reached his mother’s Oshiwara flat in Mumbai’s Andheri, he found her skeleton in the bedroom.
The police said Asha Sahani, 63, had been living alone in her flat on the 10th floor of Bellscot Tower, reported Hindustan Times.
Sahani and his wife live in the US. It is unclear if he has any children, according to the report.
“Rituraj visits India to meet his mother either once a year or every six months. He last spoke to her in April last year. He claims that he has no relatives in the city,” said a police officer.
Subhash Khanvilkar, senior inspector, Oshiwara police station, said: “Asha had been staying alone since her husband died in 2013. Their son Rituraj, an engineer, had moved to the US in 1997,” reported The Indian Express.
Khanwilkar added that since the 10th floor has only two flats and both belong to the Sahanis, neighbours did not sense any foul smell.
“We suspect she must have passed away at least a few weeks ago,” he said.
The police are now recording statements of Rituraj and residents of the building to find out when was the last time anyone spoke to her.
According to the Census 2011, almost 15 million elderly Indians live all alone and close to three-fourths of them are women. In some states such as Tamil Nadu, the proportion of such 'single elders' is even higher with one in eleven of those aged above 60 living alone.
According to a survey, there are 14,000 male senior citizens and 28,349 female senior citizens who live without being monitored by their children or relatives.
