KOLKATA - Indian police said they have arrested a man who kept his mother's body in a freezer for three years and suspect the body was kept to access the woman's pension after she died.

The BBC said Subhabrata Majumdar appeared to have mummified and preserved the body with chemicals, according to Kolkata police.

The suspect also appeared to believe his mother would be reborn if her body was preserved, they said.

"We have recovered several journals on preserving dead bodies and books on rebirth," a police officer told the BBC.

Officials said they raided the house after they got an anonymous tip-off on Wednesday (April 4).

"We found a woman's body lying inside a big freezer. It was preserved with some chemicals," they said, adding that they also found jars containing various body parts.

The suspect works as a leather technologist, which could have allowed him to access chemicals needed to "mummify" the body, the BBC quoted police as saying.

According to reports, Majumdar's mother died in April 2015.

"Both [MAJUMDAR'S]parents were retired and received a monthly pension, which can't be withdrawn once a person is dead," officer Nilanjan Biswas said.

"But we found that money has been regularly taken out of the deceased woman's pension account since her death."

The father has also been taken in for questioning, BBC said.