For kin at morgue, bangles, bracelets set loved ones apart
Hemani Bhandari and Soumya Pillai
NEW DELHI: Family members of the victims of the devastating blaze in a three-storey commercial building in west Delhi’s Mundka had a few markers in mind that they were looking for to identify their loved ones as body bags were opened one after another containing charred remains of at least 27 people who died in the blaze.
Among the items that these people were looking for in the mortuary of the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital were a bangle, a bracelet, a piece of dress, shoe and nail paint.
Some relatives, unable to stomach the horrific shape in which the bodies were, and tragically the stench, had called other members or friends to help them check and make sure that they claimed the “right body or remains”.
According to police, of the 27 bodies only eight have been identified so far.
To identify the dead, police are working with the forensic science experts. A team of FSL senior experts visited the site and collected forensic samples.
Deepa Verma, Director, Forensic Science Laboratory, Rohini said “Our two teams, including senior experts are working at the spot currently. They will identify the objects, lift samples for the purpose of identification and collection. The experts from FSL will be assisting police in identifying and lifting samples from the spot which will be later handed over to the Investigating Officer.”
Doctors at the Sanjay Gandhi
Memorial hospital said that once the hospital gets a clearance from the Delhi Police, along with a list of missing people, they will start calling families to give their DNA samples.
Nafisa, who was looking for her sister-in-law, Masarrat, said there was nothing but bones. “The stench is so strong that one can’t breathe. Rarely a body bag had a full human form. Some were missing a hand, some legs and other organs. It’s horror,” she said.
Sunita, 35, could not take it, and called her brother to help her find her 20-year-old daughter Sonam. She had a photo of Sonam, and was hoping that she could locate her daughter with her face intact. “My husband died in the hospital in April last year of Covid-19. And here I am, again, now looking for my dead daughter,” she said.
Asha was hoping to recognise her daughter-in-law Madhu, 29, with a nose ring that she was wearing when she came to work at the factory on Friday. Madhu’s sister Juicy Sinha, 22, who also worked at the unit, survived by hopping on to a crane that was passing by when the blaze broke out, and was stopped by the locals to evacuate people on the second floor. Madhu also tried but she couldn’t make it. “I wish I could save my sister,” Sinha said.
The family of Yashoda Devi, 38, a resident of Mubarakpur, identified her body by a ring and earrings that she was wearing.
Parents of Tania Bhushan, 26, sales head of the company, recognised her body by a bracelet that she was wearing. “She was going to get married in October,” Nikhil, her brother, said.