'Man living with sister's corpse not utter madness'

A Wicca expert has said the bizarre behaviour of the man who was living with the corpse of his sister and two dead dogs for the past six months in Kolkata cannot be dismissed as "utter madness".

Police stumbled on the skeletons on Wednesday night while investigating the death of Arabinda De, the owner of the house whose charred body was found inside a bathroom hours earlier.

Police reached the house in south Kolkata's Shakespeare Sarani after getting a call about a fire.

The interrogation of Arabinda's son Partha De, 44, led to the discovery of the skeletons.

Police said, prima facie, it appears Partha is "mentally unstable and refused to cremate his sister or dispose off the dead dogs".

Besides the maggot-infested skeletons, police also recovered audio CDs containing some voices and 'spooky' music. There is also evidence suggesting he used to "feed" the skeletons, police said.

Wiccan exponent Ipsita Roy Chakraverti said the man may have created an atmosphere in the house to summon the spirit of the dead.

"It seems as if he tried to create an atmosphere in the house so that the spirit of the sister could be summoned. If we consider this aspect then we can say it is a bit worrisome."

"The family was very close. If he used to resort to all this then I can say he will get a response. We can't dismiss this as madness and belittle it... He might have got some response. May be the sister used to come," Chakraverti told a TV channel.

Chakraverti launched the Wiccan Brigade as a platform for those interested in studying Wicca, described as a modern pagan religion.

Though Wicca was predominantly practised by women, the Wiccan Brigade welcomes men also. The late filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh was associated with it since its inception in 2006.