A father from Kakdwip in South 24-Parganas who was told that his son’s body had been found in Odisha, had to return empty-handed because the dead man whose photograph was shown to him was someone else.
Ebadall Siekh and his family have been waiting for news of Abbachuddin since the triple train crash in Odisha’s Balasore on June 2.
Abbachuddin, 20, was on the Coromandel Express that was involved in the crash near Bahanaga Bazar station in Balasore. The accident left 292 dead and more than 1,000 injured. Several are still missing, said railway officials.
Abbachuddin is among the four passengers from Madhusudanpur 64 Bari, Ramtanunagar, a village in Kakdwip, who are missing. The Telegraph reported on Thursday that seven men from the village died in the train tragedy.
According to the list with the administration of the Kakdwip block, 23 people from various villages in the block were on the Coromandel Express. They were on their way to Chennai to work at construction sites.
Eight people from the block died in the accident. Four are still missing and the rest are recuperating from injuries.
Abbachuddin’s father had got a call from the Kharagpur division of South Eastern Railway that his son’s body had been found.
“After receiving the call, we rushed to Bhubaneswar on June 12 night. The next morning we went to AIIMS,” said Oidul Laskar, a cousin of Abbachuddin, who had accompanied Ebadall and two others to Bhubaneswar.
“We waited through the day (at AIIMS) and were told that the documents were being prepared. In the evening they told us to come back the next morning and take the body. The hospital authorities arranged for our stay at a guesthouse and also the food,” said Oidul.
They had to wait at the hospital next day, too.
“Around 2pm, a Government Railway Police officer showed us pictures of Abbachuddin’s purse and Aadhaar card. They also showed us the picture of a man’s body. But that was not Abbachuddin,” said Oidul.
“They said there was a mistake and we would have to wait for the DNA test results. We returned home the same day,” said Oidul.
Ebadall had earlier submitted his blood sample for the DNA test.
A spokesperson for South Eastern Railway said family members of around 80 accident victims had submitted their samples for the DNA test. “The bodies of 29 victims have been identified till now through DNA matching,” said the spokesperson.
“We are trying to find out whether the body of the person was handed to someone else. We will be seeking the opinion of the doctors, too,” said an officer of the Government Railway Police in Bhubaneswar.