11 bodies of barge, tug boat crew yet to be identified
MUMBAI: Two months after the ill-fated barge Papaa305 (P305) and tug boat Varaprada had capsized in the Arabian Sea, 11 recovered bodies are lying unidentified in the morgue of Mumbai’s Sir JJ Hospital, even as the families of 10 victims are still waiting to receive the mortal remains of their loved ones. Eighty-six persons (75 from P305 and 11 from tug boat) are missing in the incident on May 17 after Cyclone Tauktae hit the city.
An officer from Yellow Gate police station said, “The bodies of 67 crew members of P305 and one crew member of Varaprada have been identified so far.”
Of the 13 on board Varaprada, 11 had died, while two were rescued by the Indian Navy.
Accommodation barge P305, with 261 people on board, had capsized in the evening near Bombay High oil field. After an SOS was sent, the Indian Navy and Coast Guard conducted a massive search and rescue operation and rescued 186 people on board P305 in eight days. They also recovered 71 bodies of the 75 missing people from P305. Of the 68 identified, one happens to be a crew member of Varaprada.
The police said 17 more bodies (seven from Valsad; one each from Daman and Arnala and eight from Alibag, Murud, Nagaon and Sasawne in Raigad) have also been recovered.
Inspector Suhas Hemade of Yellow Gate police station said, “Till date, all the eight bodies recovered from Raigad and three of the 71 bodies recovered by the Indian Navy are still lying unidentified at Sir JJ Hospital’s morgue. Of the eight bodies found at Daman and Valsad, seven turned out to be crew members of Varaprada and they were identified by their family members.” He said the bodies were decomposed, making them very difficult to be identified.
The police are in the process of collecting DNA samples of the families so that they can be matched with the bodies in the morgue.
The 10 family members of the crew members, whose bodies are yet to be identified, are eagerly awaiting some news on their loved ones. The family of Pankajkumar Das, who worked as a cook on P305, has no clue on what to expect. His father Khokan said there are many questions which remain unanswered. “Pankaj’s mother just returned after giving blood samples. We are asked to wait for at least 10-15 days for the reports. We just want to know what happened and need a closure,” said Khokan, a farmer from Mirzapur in West Bengal.
Yellow Gate police filed a case against Rakesh Ballav, the master of P305, and arrested three key management persons – Prasad Ganpat Rane, Nitin Dinanath Singh and Akhilesh Tiwari – of Papaa Shipping Company. Rajesh Shahi, the managing director of Glory Ship Management, which owns Varaprada, has also been booked.