One 'dead' man comes alive. Another 'dead' man must prove he is alive. And the 'deth' typo that exposed a con

117044180Pandurang Ulpe's family couldn't believe what they had just seen. They were on their way to cremate the 65-year-old when the ambulance they were in went over a speed bump and his fingers began to move."We were stunned. We immediately turned the vehicle around and took him back to hospital where doctors stabilised him. Yes, my grandfather is now alive," Omkar Ramane, Ulpe's grandson, confirmed.The incident occurred on December 16 in Maharashtra’s Kohlapur, and Ulpe, alive and well, was finally discharged from hospital on December 30. His story made headlines recently after a video emerged on local social media showing him walking back into his house, escorted by cheering relatives. #Maharashtra | Pandurang Ulpe, believed to be dead after a heart attack, showed signs of life when his fingers moved as the ambulance hit a speed bump.

"We were stunned. We immediately turned the vehicle around and took him back to hospital where doctors stabilised him. Yes, my… pic.twitter.com/C9ius8w2JD

— The Times Of India (@timesofindia) January 3, 2025 According to his family, on December 16, Ulpe had just returned home from his farm when he began to vomit. His wife called for help.Ulpe's grandson Ramane said doctors at the hospital in Kasba Bawada locality first said the 65-year-old had suffered a heart attack and referred him to another private hospital. "In the private hospital, he vomited blood a few times and collapsed. An ECG was carried out, and my grandfather was declared dead. Doctors said they had tried hard to save his life," Ramane said.Later that day, Ulpe's relatives cleared the hospital bills and informed their loved ones of his "passing". "We were on our way with his body for his funeral when the ambulance struck a speed breaker, near Chougule Galli in Kasaba Bawada. We saw his fingers move. One of our relatives touched his wrist and felt a pulse," Ramane said. Ulpe was then taken to the CPR Hospital in Kohlapur, but since beds there were full, the ambulance was diverted to DY Patil Hospital. A doctor at DY Patil said Ulpe was in a critical state when he reached. "He was put on a ventilator after we performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation to restore blood flow. An ECG also found a blockage so he was rushed to another hospital for angioplasty. He recovered fully after a two-day stay," the doctor said.Ulpe's family refused to divulge the name of the hospital or the doctors who had declared him dead on December 16.Officials from Kolhapur Municipal Corporation said the incident will be investigated. "Doctors just cannot declare a person dead without proper examination. We will probe this episode," said Prakash Pavra, Kolhapur Municipal Corporation's chief health officer.'Dead' man fights for ‘life’Ganapati Khachu Kakatkar, a 62-year-old from Savagaon village in Karnataka’s Belagavi taluk, has been moving heaven and earth for the past 17 months, trying to prove he is alive, after being declared "dead" in government records.Thanks to a clerical error, Ganapati was deprived of essential benefits, including old-age pension, subsidised food grains, crop-loss compensation and assistance under the PM Kisan Fund. "I have suffered a lot because of this," he lamented. medium nocaption117047560Ganapati's ordeal began when his brothers applied for a succession certificate to claim their rights over a six-acre piece of land left behind by their grandfather, Masanu Shattu Kakatkar, who passed away in 1976. Before his death, Masanu had divided nine acres of land among his three sons. Over the years, Masanu's three sons also passed away, leaving his eight grandsons, including Ganapati, to claim the ancestral land.The problem occurred when a computer operator at the Hindalga revenue inspector's office, while preparing Masanu's death certificate, mistook Ganapati's Aadhaar card number to be his late grandfather's and prepared a death certificate for a person still alive.As a result of this error, not only was Ganapati's Aadhaar number locked, but his name also got deleted from his ration card – effectively rendering him ‘dead' in government records.Ganapati discovered the error only on August 3, 2023. After months of frustration, he approached deputy commissioner Mohammad Roshan recently, accompanied by his family members and a lawyer. Upon hearing his plight, Roshan assured Ganapati that the issue would be resolved soon. He directed the assistant commissioner to take immediate remedial measures.Till ‘deth’ do us part: How a typo exposed a brother’s ransom con"Anyone who can only think of one way to spell a word lacks imagination." That Mark Twain said 117 years ago may not be known to the police in Uttar Pradesh’s Hardoi, but they cannot agree more with the idea.It is precisely what helped them crack a ‘staged' abduction case wherein a man tried to con his brother for an amount of Rs 50,000.It all began when Sanjay Kumar, a contractor in the construction business, informed police that his younger brother Sandeep had been abducted, and that he had received a video of his brother in captivity and a ransom note saying if Rs 50,000 was not paid, it would result in his ‘deth' (sic).The 13-second video showed Sandeep, who has been working at a sugarcane weighing centre in Mirzapur for the past one month, tied to a tree with a rope, Hardoi superintendent of police Neeraj Jadaun said. 117047843"The word death misspelt in the note Sanjay had received gave us a clue that the abductors weren't educated," the SP said. What the police found odd was that the ransom amount demanded was too little vis-à-vis Sanjay's financial status. "Also, Sandeep did not have enmity with anybody nor any personal issues in the family," Jadaun added.Police mounted a search and located Sandeep near Rupapur. Upon questioning, he was not able to give any satisfactory answer, raising suspicion.Unable to find a reasonable motive behind his abduction, the SP decided to take a shot and asked Sandeep to write an application. While dictating, Jadaun deliberately inserted the word ‘death', which Sandeep spelt as ‘deth'.Upon being grilled, he admitted that he had staged his own abduction to get some money from his "wealthy" elder brother. He told the police that he had hit an elderly man with his bike, and had to pay Rs 80,000 to him for medical expenses. He also had to sell his bike. Sandeep said he then hatched the plan to get money from his brother, who would have otherwise refused.Police have detained Sandeep and will be initiating legal action against him.Inputs: Abhijeet Patil, Pathikrit Chakraborty