With 95 of the 148 victims of the ill-fated Jnaneswari Express identified, the authorities in West Bengal on Monday decided to conduct DNA tests for identifying the remaining 53 bodies.
Disclosing this, West Bengal Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta told reporters here that all the identified bodies have been handed over to their family members after post-mortem examination.
For DNA tests, samples are being sent to the city’s Central Forensic Science Laboratory, the premier forensic lab in the country. He said 150 passengers sustained injuries. “They are under treatment in several hospitals in Midnapore, Kharagpur and Kolkata.”
Twenty-four of the seriously injured patients had been rushed to Kolkata, of whom one died and four others have been released.
The passenger train went off the track between Sardiha and Khemasuli railway stations in West Bengal, after suspected Maoists removed 1.5 feet of rail track, early Friday, rudely shaking the hundreds of sleeping passengers. Five coaches fell on a parallel track.
Even before the trapped passengers could realise what had happened, a speeding goods train coming from the opposite direction rammed into the five coaches, crushing some of the passengers.