The city police have decided to conduct DNA fingerprinting profiling of three unidentified bodies which were retrieved from under the debris of City Light Hotel but remained unclaimed at the Gandhi Hospital mortuary.
Out of the four unclaimed bodies, one has been identified as that of Mohammed Aslam (35) of Rasoolpura on Thursday.
“We will wait till Friday for identifying the remaining three bodies. If no one claims them, we will conduct DNA fingerprinting profiling of the bodies and send for conduct of last rites,” said Mahankali Additional Inspector A. Srinivas Rao.
This initiative would also help officials in sanctioning ex-gratia to the claimants if they identify the victims in future.
The expertise of Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) scientists in identifying bodies through DNA fingerprinting would be used.
Usually, the police wait for 48 hours for unclaimed bodies preserved in the deep freezer at the isolation ward in the Gandhi Hospital mortuary to facilitate people identify them and later hand them over to municipal workers.
In case of the hotel incident, the bodies have been lying in the morgue for the past 72 hours. “It’s not advisable to preserve bodies for such a long duration,” Mr. Rao said.
Aslam was identified by his family through photographs published in the newspapers. The victim used to work as a daily wage labourer.
As there was urgent need of manpower for attending to ‘Haleem’ preparation works at the hotel, the management had appointed him on a daily wage of Rs. 300. He is survived by two wives each having two children.
With the information collected from injured hotel workers and survivors, the police identified another body as that of Mogli from Kolkata but none came forward to claim his body.
“We will try to collect more information about Mogli to trace his family members,” added the Additional Inspector.
