Fire victims’ kin get body parts after DNA match

Kolkata: After nearly a month of uncertainty, families of those who lost their lives in the Jan 26 fire at Anandapur godown finally received mortal remains of their loved ones on Saturday. Of the 18 victims identified so far through DNA testing, mortal remains of 16 were handed over to their kin from the Katapukur morgue. Two families could not receive the remains due to pending documentation issues.Family members gathered at Narendrapur PS on Saturday morning, where the legal and administrative formalities were completed. Later in the day, they proceeded to the morgue, where the remains were formally handed over.
An officer said, "From the fire-torn spot, we recovered the body parts of 27 workers. Eighteen of them were identified. The process of identifying 9 others is on."Police said while the mortal remains were handed over to 16 families, issuance of death certificates will take a few more days. The documents will be collected by Narendrapur police from Kheyadah II panchayat and either forwarded to the respective police stations or families will be asked to collect them later.The DNA reports will also be submitted to the court. However, authorities are yet to confirm when the DNA results of the remaining 9 victims will be available.Tamluk resident Niranjan Mondal, who also works as a flower decorator in Mukundapur, broke down as he was handed the mortal remains of his 19-year-old son, Ramkrishna. "I was praying that my DNA sample mismatched and my son was alive. But that did not happen. Today I got his body parts," said Mondal, who also worked at the same decorator's godown a few years ago and left work over a payment issue. His brother, Gobinda Mondal, also went missing after the fire. His body parts could not be identified.Subrata Fadikar from Panskura turned up to collect mortal remains of his brother-in-law, Tapan Dolui. Soumitra Khaara, who came to collect the remains of his brother, Subrata, said their last conversation took place on the night of Jan 25. Maya Das, also from E Midnapore, arrived for the remains of her brother, Sujit Singh. "I never imagined that my first visit to the city would be for such a reason."