The body of Ishwar Nagre (68), one of the victims of the fire aboard the Bangalore-Nanded Express, which was wrongly identified as the former zilla panchayat member Bhimayya S. and buried in his village in Kurkunta, 80 km from here, was exhumed on Wednesday and taken to Ingoli in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, for being handed over to relatives.
The remains of Nagre, which were buried in a concrete pit in the field owned by Bhimayya, were exhumed in the presence of senior revenue department officials, the police and railway police.
Earlier, Deputy Superintendent of Police (Railways) Sudharshan, who arrived here on Tuesday evening, informed the district authorities of the mix-up and sought their help in exhuming the body.
The relatives of Mr. Bhimayya were informed only on Wednesday morning. At first they did not give their consent for exhuming the body.
Mr. Sudharshan and the local police explained to them that the body of Nagre was handed over to them even before DNA profiling could be done. The body was, in fact, handed over to them after identification by Bhimayya’s daughter, Saroja.
But once DNA profiling was made available to the railway authorities on Tuesday, immediate measures were taken to undo the mistake.
The relatives later agreed to cooperate, but they wanted the authorities to hand over the body of Bhimayya before the body of Nagre was exhumed.
Railway officials told them the body was lying in the mortuary in Bangalore and would be handed over only to the relatives of the victim.
As per information available, one of Bhimayya’s relatives is on his way to Bangalore.
