Thiruvananthapuram police will exhume the body of 69-year-old Gopan Swamy to solve the death mystery after his family claimed he had taken samadhi, police said on Monday. The Neyyattinkara police received an order from the Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) on Monday to exhume the body of Gopan Swamy, who was buried under mysterious circumstances, for post-mortem, an official said.

Written on the poster- 'Gopan Swami has taken samadhi'

The official said that the place where Swamy's family claims that he has taken samadhi will be excavated in the presence of the RDO. According to police sources, officials are expected to reach the so-called samadhi site soon to initiate action. The incident came to light when posters were put up near Swamy's house stating "Gopan Swami has taken samadhi". Local residents raised doubts over his death and lodged a complaint following which the police registered a missing person case and decided to exhume the body for further investigation.

Gopan Swami's son made such a claim

A police official said that once the body is recovered, a request has been made to send it for postmortem. Gopan Swami's son Rajasenan claims that his father went to the same spot at around 11:30 pm on Friday night and took samadhi. He told a television news channel that Gopan Swami had asked the family to keep his body away from people and bury him in a grave.

What did the neighbors say?

However, neighbours told television channels that Gopan Swami was bed-ridden due to suffering from several ailments. It was the priest Gopan Swami who had built a special samadhi sthal and also a temple on his property at Kavuvilakam in Neyyattinkara.