The air was heavy with anguish at the Suri Hospital mortuary on Tuesday, as relatives and friends of those killed in the Vananchal Express-Uttarbanga Express collision at Sainthia junction waited to go through the task of identifying bodies for cremation.
Photo identification
Pictures of 63 dead passengers were put up on a board by the district administration to make the identification process easier.
There was little time even to grieve over the losses as the families had to complete legal formalities after identifying bodies.
Seventeen-year-old Mitul Sheikh was inconsolable on identifying the body of his father Barjahan Sheikh.
A utensil hawker by profession and hailing from Murshidabad district, Barjahan had been travelling along with three others to Ranchi on the Vananchal Express.
“Though we reached Sainthia on Monday itself, we could not find my brother's name on the railway list at the station. We were asked to go to Burdwan hospital but there too we did not find him. Finally, we came here today,” Shamsul Sheikh, Mitul's uncle, said, pointing out the lack of coordination among government agencies in disseminating information.
The vacant yet defiant eyes of 18-year-old Raju Mondal, who is mentally and physically challenged, spoke volumes about his loss even as he cannot speak properly.
Raju lost his mother Kamla Devi in the accident – with whom he was travelling to Kanke near Ranchi for his treatment.
His father Jagdambi Mondal, who arrived here on Tuesday from Bhagalpur, lamented: “Raju tried save his mother and had accompanied her to the hospital. However, she succumbed to her injuries later. The boy has become unusually quiet now and I do not know what to do next.”
Student victims
While 18-year-old Sonu Kumar Yadav from Sahebganj was going to Ranchi for his classes in a polytechnic college, 25-year-old engineering student Prasun Kumar Pandit was going back to his college at Dhanbad after attending a friend's marriage at Rampurhat.
“He had not visited home for quite some time and his mother was always missing him. Now he would never return,” Prasun's father Ayodhya Pandit, said while trying to fight back tears.
Railway officials distributed an amount of Rs.25,000 to every injured person as well as to the families of those dead.
An official said that it was a token amount and the rest of the declared compensation amount would be given later.
Political parties, meanwhile, tried outdoing each other in their attempt to assist and help the relatives of the victims. Several parties had set up camps at the hospital premises since Monday.
