Odisha train accident: Why are DNA tests being carried out on corpses?

Five days after the disastrous Odisha train accident, the agony continues for the families of the victims. Hundreds of bodies are piling up in hospitals in and around Balasore as kin find it difficult to identify them. The triple collision led to corpses being badly damaged, making it nearly impossible for kin to identify them.

Already heartbroken, families are struggling to find missing relatives and claim bodies. So far more than 280 people have died and around 177 bodies have been identified. More than 100 others need to be handed over.

The fight over bodies

Chaos and confusion prevail with several families squabbling over bodies. Two families, one from Howrah and another from north Dinajpur, clashed over a dead victim.

Jahangir Midday (42) and Anjarul Haque (41) both have been declared dead in the Odisha train tragedy. Both were wearing identical clothes, according to the police.

Midday’s body, which had multiple injuries and was decomposed, was handed over to his brother after it was identified at AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, reports The Times of India (ToI). They were later told that some other family had claimed the same body.

However, this is not an isolated case.

A police officer speaks with people who are unable to identify their relatives in Friday’s train accident in Balasore, at the AIIMS hospital in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday. AP

Mohammed Imam Ul Haq from Bihar faced a similar dilemma. The body of his brother is still missing and the one which he said is that of his 12-year-old nephew is being claimed by another family, reports Reuters.

“We are Muslim, boys are circumcised at birth; however, the body is in no condition to even check that,” Haq said of the remains he believes are of his nephew.

Several families who have been waiting for days said that the bodies of their relatives are being released to someone else.

Also read: Odisha: What’s electronic interlocking system & could Kavach have prevented it?

DNA testing

The only way out is to conduct a DNA test on the dead. Authorities had taken DNA samples from all the dead bodies in hospitals across the state, Prateek Singh, a senior police official, told the media on Tuesday.

Some of these samples will be reportedly sent to Delhi on a flight after which the identity of the bodies will be ascertained.

The DNA samples will be preserved so that there is no problem in the future. Bodies will be handed over to families after verification, only adding to their pain. Authorities say that this process is necessary to ensure transparency and no errors.

“In cases where there are multiple claimants, we have taken DNA samples from family members and we will preserve the bodies until the DNA matches,” Singh told local media.

A man signs a paper to receive the body of his son who died in Friday’s train accident in Balasore, at the hospital in Bhubaneswar. AP

AIIMS, Bhubaneswar has also started DNA sampling of the claimants. As many as 10 samples have so far been collected from the claimants, a senior official of the hospital told news agency Press Trust of India (PTI).

In a conference held by AIIMS Bhubaneswar Executive Director Ashutosh Biswas and Khurda Divisional Railway Manager Rikesh Ray, they said that at least 52 unidentified bodies are in the hospital.

Also read: Is the Odisha train accident an outcome of sabotage? Why CBI has been called in

The mix-up in bodies

Despite the DNA testing, families say there have been mix-ups. A claimant from, Jharkhand on Tuesday alleged that they had on Monday identified the body of Upendra Kumar Sharma, but it was handed over to someone other on 6 June.

“What is the point of doing DNA sampling if the body has been handed over to someone other? We had identified Upendra from the tattoo mark on his body,” the relative added.

Another grief-stuck mother from Nepal told NDTV that the body of her teenage son was identified but she was informed that it was handed over to some other family.

West Bengal resident Zakaria Laskar has similar woes. The body of his uncle was claimed by a woman from Malda, the report says. “I don’t know the woman’s name. They are just telling me a woman has taken the body,” he told NDTV.

A woman shows a photograph of her husband whose body she has been unable to identify after the mishap. AP

The challenge of preserving remains

However, the problems are only expected to compound for hospital authorities. The hot weather in Odisha poses a big challenge to preserving the remains.

“It was very difficult to store such a large number of bodies with care, identify those and dispatch the bodies to their families after all due formalities,” Dr Biswas said.

AIIMS, Bhubaneswar has procured at least five deep freezer containers from Paradip Port on Monday, which will help store the bodies. According to an official, they can be preserved in these containers for six months.

A group of 20 medical professionals comprising specialists in anatomy and forensic medicine from central government hospitals in New Delhi like AIIMS, Lady Hardinge and Ram Manohar Lohia, arrived in Balasore to help preserve the bodies.

Corpses have also been surgically embalmed to delay decomposition but it is a race against time. Yet there are concerns.

Dr Prabhas Ranjan Tripathy, professor of anatomy at AIIMS Bhubaneswar, told Hindustan Times that embalming should be done within six to 12 hours of the death. A delay causes it to lose effectiveness and decompose quickly. “The accident happened during the summer so that has exacerbated the process. Also if the body is damaged, embalming is difficult,” he said.

The challenges continue for medical experts as Odisha struggles to pick up the pieces. But the plight of relatives is heartbreaking, they have no time to mourn leave alone come to terms.

With inputs from agencies

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