India

Buldhana: The ominous feeling of tragedy spilled over into Sunday in Buldhana at the mass cremation of 24 Hindu victims of the bus accident on Samruddhi Mahamarg on Saturday.

The trauma continued for the relatives, as they were forced to perform the last rites of whichever body they got in front of them, believing it to be of their relatives.Only one woman’s body was kept separately for burial, after a relative of Zoya Shaikh ‘recognised’ her from her teeth.

This body was handed over to her family, relaxing the norms of scientific identification that the district administration had cited while cajoling the remaining families to agree to the mass cremation.Jai Dhawane, relative of Yavatmal’s Nikhil Pate, said the administration should have allowed families the chance to identify their kin.

“How come the rule of identification was relaxed for only one family? How could they be so sure about it and no one else was found eligible for similar guesswork?” asked Dhawane, adding his cousin Pate was easily identifiable from his body structure and face.SP Buldhana Sunil Kadasne said the woman’s body was identified from her incisor tooth by a close relative.

“Everyone ultimately has to return to the soil,” he said on a philosophical note, without replying to allegations of discrimination.The district and police administration, with the initiative of minister Girish Mahajan, had convinced the 24 families to agree for a mass cremation.

The reasoning was that the bodies would need scientific identification through DNA analysis, which would take a week.

The families were cajoled into giving consent for the mass cremation, which turned into a farce without any plan or process.At the crematorium, relatives rushed to try and identify their kin, even when the bodies were beyond recognition, referring to height, stature or physique.

Other merely tried to place a garland, or broke down in tears in front of the bodies no one was claiming.It is learnt the bodies of four women were not claimed by anyone at the Buldhana district hospital mortuary before leaving for the crematorium.Many relatives also tried to open the plastic sheet wrapped around the bodies, in desperate zeal to catch a last glimpse of their near or dear ones before the pyres were lit.

“We just guessed the body to be of Kaustuv’s (Kale from Nagpur) as his physical structure resembled it,” said a relative, even as his two sisters broke down in front of the pyre.Inconsolable Neelima Khode and her family from Wardha could only look on in stunned grief in front of a pyre supposed to of her son.The family of model Avantika Pohonekar of Wardha too paid obeisance in front of a pyre they thought was hers.

Her mother, who collapsed during the funeral, was inconsolable.Some families decided to offer homage to all pyres.

Vaibhav Adsad, kin of deceased Rajashri Gondole, said their family paid homage to all assuming one of the bodies would be of their kin.

“Our humble homage must have been accepted by her soul as we had expressed it without knowing which was the right body.

We believe the blessings must have gone to her,” he said.The traumatized kin, camping at Buldhana for more than 36 hours now, said the district administration had merely ‘numbered’ the bodies as per their ‘sequence of arrival’ at the district government hospital.

After that no efforts were made to identify any of them, except the one of Zoya.The families had been again summoned to the crematorium at 5pm on Sunday for handing over the ‘asthi kalash’ and death certificates.The failure of access control at the crematorium also led to commotion, chaos and confusion, as a huge crowd of locals jostled for space with the mourners and the media.District collector HP Tummod said the cremation of 24 bodies was unprecedented, and aroused public curiosity.

“The families of the deceased will be accommodated in Buldhana with all support till all the funeral rites are completed,” he said.SP Kadasne said stringent section 304 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) for culpable homicide not amounting to murder has been invoked against driver (Sheikh Danish).

“We would investigate the documents of the vehicle to ascertain the ownership of the vehicle, and try assess his or her culpability too,” said Kadasne.In charge civil surgeon Dr Bhagwat Bhusari said the post mortem reports are being prepared, and would be handed over to the police and administration.

“The deaths are all due to burning.

The entire process was videographed and pictures were clicked too for further reference,” said Dr Bhusari.





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