Revealed: Truth behind tragic secret execution of businessman Zeng Chengjie

The remains of firecrackers layer Chengjie Happy Road in Yangshiao village, marking the miserable fate of the man who built the street.

In rural Hunan, a funeral is more like a twisted carnival in which east meets west. Giant inflatables mark the entrance to the home of Zeng Chengjie, the man dubbed "China's Bernie Madoff", and the residence has been turned into a colourful mourning hall. Paper flowers, fancy lanterns and lights hang around huge banners carrying poetic words depicting a paradoxical situation in which "a humble peasant who worked hard all his life" was "unjustly executed".

A rusty brass band plays outdated pop music for arriving guests while Buddhist monks sing scriptures calling for the release of Zeng's soul from purgatory. In white mourning dress, Zeng's children each bear a character meaning "injustice" on their caps.

"He was always going out of his way to do good and help people, but what is the use of any of that? He had such a tragic ending," said Yao Mao, Zeng's 31-year-old son-in-law.

The final 46 days of the death row prisoner's life were disturbing. His hand and leg cuffs were tied with a 40cm chain, as is done to violent inmates or drug abusers. He could not stand up straight or lie in bed properly, even to sleep. The cruel punishment was imposed after Zeng talked back to a guard, says his lawyer Wang Shaoguang, who last saw him on May 28.

His torture ended when the 55-year-old western Hunan businessman was killed by firing squad on July 12, without his family being notified. A court in Changsha, Hunan's provincial capital, claimed his next of kin could not be located, even though his children had petitioned in public for their father's exoneration since 2009.

The children's mother was sentenced to 5½ years in prison and their sister to seven years after they were implicated for helping Zeng illegally raise 3.4 billion yuan (HK$4.3 billion) and defrauding tens of thousands of investors in Hunan's western Jishou city.