Archive · 31 Aug 2026
Missing Odisha Man Returns Alive After Family Cremates Body
Sanatan Naik disappeared from his village in Odisha.
His family searched for him but could not find him.
Police later found a body in a paddy field.
Because the body was badly decomposed, the family identified it mostly by its clothes.
They believed it was Sanatan and held a funeral.
About a month after he disappeared, the family learned that Sanatan was alive.
His relatives brought him home from a police outpost.
Officials have not yet explained whose body the family cremated.
Sanatan Naik, 29, went missing from Barsinga village on July 17 after leaving by bicycle.
Police later recovered a decomposed unidentified body from a paddy field near Kunua village.
Sanatan’s family identified the body mainly from its clothes and cremated it.
Nearly a month after his disappearance, officials informed the family that Sanatan was alive.
The case has raised questions about whose body was cremated and why the identification failed.
- Who
- Sanatan Naik, his family, and local police officials were involved.
- What
- A missing man returned alive nearly a month after his family cremated an unidentified body they believed was his.
- When
- Sanatan disappeared on July 17; the body was recovered 10 days later, and he was found alive about a month after his disappearance.
- Where
- He disappeared from Barsinga village in Dhenkanal’s Hindol area; the body was found near Kunua village, and Sanatan was located at Joranda outpost.
- Why
- The family believed the unidentified, decomposed body was Sanatan’s based mainly on its clothing.
- Missing man
- Sanatan Naik, 29
- Village
- Barsinga village under Balimi police limits
- Disappearance
- July 17, after leaving home on a bicycle
- Body recovered
- Ten days later from a paddy field near Kunua village
- Identification basis
- The family relied mainly on the body’s clothes
- Funeral
- The family cremated the body and performed the Suddhikriya ritual
- Discovery
- Sanatan was reported alive from Joranda outpost nearly a month later