Colombo:
A Sri Lankan man exhumed his dead wife's skull from the cemetery and decorated it at home for memory, an act that landed him in a psychiatric ward.
A 50-year-old man of Mahavilachchiya town exhumed the skull of his wife ten months after her burial and then brought it home, placed it on a pedestal, offered flowers and lit oil lamps.
He has been placed in the care of the nearby Anuradhapura Hospital's Psychiatric ward.
Acting Magistrate Ranjith Rajakaruna, before whom he was produced, ordered that the skull be re-interred in the cemetery, the Island Newspaper reported on Monday.
The police said his 44-year-old wife had died of some illness and he who had dearly loved her could not bear her death. He refused to believe that she had left him forever, according to the police.
The man had been mourning for his wife for months before deciding to exhume her body.
After bringing the skull home, he had told his daughters, "Now I have brought your mother home", the newspaper said.
When neighbours started visiting his house after hearing the news, he placed the skull on a branch of a jack tree. He was handed over to the Mahavilachchiya Police later.