Chennai, Oct 10 (IANS): Trichy police recovered the decomposed body of an old woman from a house in Tamil Nadu's Sokkampatti village after her unmarried daughters sat with the body for five days 'praying' for their 78-year-old mother to 'resurrect'.

According to police, the incident occurred late in the evening on Friday near Manapparai.

The police said they received an anonymous note about a foul smell emanating from the residence of a deceased retired female teacher, B. Mary. The police reached the incident site, but Mary's daughters -- 43-year-old B. Jayanthi and 40-year-old B. Jacintha, both unmarried, did not allow the police to enter their house.

The police said they informed the local village officer who arrived at the incident site and told the women's daughters that they would break open the door if they refused to open it.

According to a senior police official, the woman's daughters told the police that they would not allow them to enter their home as their mother's body was there and she would be hurt if they broke open and entered their house.

However, after some persuasion, the women allowed the police to enter the house and found that the body was nearly five days old and in a decomposed state. The police rushed the body to the Manapparai hospital where the post-mortem was conducted on Saturday.

Manapparai Police Inspector, Karunakaran while speaking to media said, "The daughters of the deceased woman argued with the police that their mother was alive even after conducting the post-mortem. The woman's body was later buried and her daughters would be given counselling."