Kolkata: Twenty-six days after a fire engulfed two warehouses in Anandapur in the early hours of January 26, the remains of 16 of the 27 employees reported missing were handed over to their families on Saturday. Nine bodies are yet to be identified, police said.
Family members gathered at the Kantapukur morgue after DNA profiling confirmed the identities. Although 18 victims have been identified so far, two sets of remains could not be released because of procedural issues in the handover process.
Police said that of the 18 identified victims, 16 were from East Midnapore district, one from Baruipur and one from West Midnapore. DNA samples of relatives were matched with forensic samples collected from body parts recovered during post-mortem examinations, as visual identification was not possible because of the condition of the remains.
Niranjan Mondal of East Midnapore, who lost his 18-year-old son Ramkrishna Mondal and 39-year-old brother Gobinda Mondal, said his son’s DNA had matched, but his brother’s report was still awaited.
The fire broke out around 3 am at a momo company warehouse and spread to an adjacent godown. Several workers from different districts were inside at the time. Some escaped, but many were trapped. Police recovered multiple remains after nearly 72 hours of search operations.
The owner of one of the warehouses, a decorator company’s godown, Gangadhar Das, was arrested. Later, two officials of the momo company, which occupied the other warehouse, were also arrested. Three employees of the company were among those killed.
Fire and emergency services officials said after the incident that neither warehouse had a fire safety certificate. Police said efforts are continuing to identify the remaining nine bodies.