Bodies of two more sailors handed over to relatives

November 03, 2012 11:41 am | Updated November 17, 2021 04:13 am IST - Chennai

Ponneri,03/11/2012: For City:Krishna Chandran relatives waiting outside the Ponneri Government hospital  at Ponneri in Tamil Nadu on Saturday. Photo:B_Jothi Ramalingam.

Ponneri,03/11/2012: For City:Krishna Chandran relatives waiting outside the Ponneri Government hospital at Ponneri in Tamil Nadu on Saturday. Photo:B_Jothi Ramalingam.

For the families of the five sailors who perished in Cyclone Nilam, it was finally all over as they received the bodies of their dead kin.

While three of the families returned home on Friday night after receiving the bodies, the families of Jomon Joseph and Krishna Chandra returned home on Saturday.

The bodies of Jomon Joseph and Krishna C.P. Purayil were identified by their relatives at the Ponneri Government Hospital on Saturday morning. Jomon was among the five sailors who were declared missing when they did not return to the shore on Wednesday after the oil tanker MT Pratibha Cauvery ran aground at Elliot’s Beach in Besant Nagar.

Jomon’s family, who began their hunt for him on Thursday, had sought fishermen’s help to take them through every canal. They managed to find Raj Ramesh Khamitkar’s body on Friday afternoon.

Even when there was confusion over identification of Raj at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital here, they were sure that it was not Jomon. “He is taller, around 5feet 8inches, and this body is that of a shorter person,” one of his uncles maintained.

Jomon’s body had washed ashore in Minjur and been sent to the GH around 5 p.m. on Friday. Jomon had worked on an oil tanker in the Gulf for a year and took up a job on MT Pratibha Cauvery six months ago. His uncle said he loved cricket and was a fun-loving person who wanted to become a sailor. His father K.J. Joseph had been in no position to talk, late on Friday evening. When contacted by The Hindu he had said, “I am very tired now. I don’t feel like talking.”

On Saturday, a body clad in blue uniform was found near Ennore Creek. It was identified as that of Krishna Chandra by his relatives at Ponneri GH. Krishna’s uncle and cousins received the body. His father P.P. Chandrasekar works as a bank manager in a co-operative bank.

The bodies of K. Niranjan, Rushub Jadhav and Raj Khamitkar were handed over to the respective families on Friday evening after the mandatory autopsy.

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