A fortnight after the triple-train crash at Bahanaga in Odisha’s Balasore district, the bodies of 81 victims are still lying unidentified at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bhubaneswar, officials at the hospital said.
Multiple claimants have turned up for close to 30 bodies, the officials said. The hospital has sent 75 samples for DNA sequencing at the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) in Delhi to identify bodies.
The CBI is probing the crash — involving the Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express, Bangalore-Howrah Superfast Express and a goods train — which occurred around 7pm on June 2.
The samples for DNA sequencing are now in the custody of the CBI and it would take at least a month for the matching to be completed, senior AIIMS officials said over the phone from Bhubaneswar on Friday.
“We still have 81 bodies, which have either remained unclaimed or could not be handed to the kin because there are multiple claimants,” said Raj Kishore Dash, a senior official at AIIMS Bhubaneswar.
Immediately after the accident, the victims and the injured were rushed to government hospitals in places not very far from the accident spot — Soro, Bhadrak and Balasore.
The critically injured passengers and the unidentified bodies were finally taken to the AIIMS.
Senior officials said that in the initial days, bodies were handed to family members at a fast pace. But things slowed down as there are no claimants for some bodies and too many for some others.
Pictures of the deceased, along with a description of items found on them (such as apparel, amulets and bags), and identification marks like tattoos have been put up in several places, including on the websites of the hospital, railways and the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation.
“Over the past week, we have been able to hand over just one body. Apart from the 30-something bodies with several claimants, there are close to 50 for whom no one has yet turned up,” an official at AIIMS said. “Koi aa hee nahi raha hain (no one is coming).”
Some of those awaiting the result of DNA tests have been put up in a guest house near the hospital in Bhubaneswar, along with those arriving to claim the bodies of their near ones. But no one is sure how long the wait will be.
“There were teeth among the samples that were sent for DNA sequencing. Some of the teeth are heavily stained with tobacco and need to be cleaned first. The sequencing is a long and complicated process. Tissues need to be extracted first and then amplified and matched,” the official said.