Man's decomposed body found in sprawling flat in Colaba highrise

The decomposed body of a 65-year-old man was found in his spacious, but run-down, 4BHK flat in a highrise building of south Mumbai's posh Colaba area, police said today. The man, identified as Al Farooque Kabali, lived alone in the 30th floor flat of the building on SVS Road since divorcing his wife three years ago, police said. The house had no electricity and had completely gone into ruin due to the long period of neglect, police said. Kabali's wife stayed in a flat in Malabar Hill, their two sons were in the United States and Muscat in Oman while a married daughter stayed in Mumbai, police informed. Officials said the incident came to light yesterday afternoon after a manager of the housing complex went up to Kabali's flat to paste a notice informing that water seepage from the flat was causing problems to the one on the 29th floor. A foul smell was emanating from the flat, officials said, following which the manager alerted other housing society members as well as the police. Colaba police, along with fire services personnel, rushed to the spot, broke open the door and found Kabali's decomposed body, he said. "Electricity to the flat was discontinued by BEST almost two years ago due to non-payment of bills. The house was in a state of complete neglect," police official Babasaheb Salunkhe, who visited the flat, told PTI. He said that Kabali's former wife had refused to claim the body and police had contacted the children and were awaiting a response. The body had been sent to postmortem and a decision on what to do with the body would be taken after legal deliberations, he said. PTI