U'Khand tragedy: Bodies of 5 trekkers reach city

kolkata: Bodies of five persons who had died due to a massive landslide after going for trekking in the Kumaon – Himalaya in Uttarakhand reached Kolkata airport in coffins on Thursday morning. The bodies were recovered from Sunderdunga valley on Tuesday and after performing all formalities were sent to the state so that the last rites can be done by their respective family members .

The bodies of Sagar Dey, (28), Sarit Shekhar Das( 37) , Chandrasekhar Das (36) all residents of Bagnan in Howrah district reached at around 8.30 am in the morning while

the bodies of the other two Sadhan Kumar Basak (63) of Thakurpukur in Kolkata and Pritam Ray( 28) of Ranaghat in Nadia district reached an hour later.

The victims were part of an 11-member team that had left the state for Nainital on the day of Panchami .State Fire and Emergency Services minister Sujit Bose, state Correctional Administration minister Ujjal Biswas and state Public Health Engineering minister Pulak Roy were present in the airport for supervising arrangements for sending the bodies to their respective family members.

"We have come here under the instructions of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee so that the bodies are transported to their respective homes quickly. We extend our condolences to the family members of the deceased," Bose said. According to the family members of Sarit Shekhar Das and Chandrasekhar Das who happens to be cousins, the younger one had no plans to embark on the trekking expedition.

However, a member of the group who was scheduled to go fell ill at the last moment and so Chandrasekhar joined the group.