Financial Express print this



Fight over bodies on as families hunt for missing after Delhi blasts

11/1/2005

NEW DELHI, Oct 31 (AFP): Three families are claiming the bodies of two charred children amid a grim search by relatives for those missing after weekend blasts in New Delhi that claimed 61 lives, newspapers reported Monday.
The bodies of what appears to be an eight-year-old girl and a three-year-old boy are lying at Safdarjung hospital in south Delhi, where most of the dead from Saturday's massive blast at Sarojini Nagar market were taken.
A group from a village in Haryana state claim the bodies are those of Priyanka and Nikhil Singh, whose parents both died in the blasts, the Indian Express said.
But two other families, one from Assam and the other from Delhi, have also staked claim to the bodies.
Anupma Gupta, who claims the boy is his son Utkarsh, was in tears.
"Why are they doing this to me? Can't a father recognise his own child? See his photo, do I need to clarify more," Gupta said. "Now they are saying Utkarsh is not my son. Telling a father to disown his own son."
Apurva Sharma, meanwhile, showing a photo taken just days ago, claimed the girl is Maitreyee, the seven-year-old daughter of his companion Kumud Bhattacharya.
The reports said the families had finally agreed to cremate the bodies jointly but that police had said the bodies would be kept for 72 hours before a decision was made.