Whose body is it anyway?

DHANBAD: Death is not the end for miners in Dhanbad. Rather, it sparked off a quarrel between the Mishra and Beldar families at the Bhatdih hospital.

 

Both Dinesh and Manoj died, along with 52 others in the Bhatdih mines disaster on Wednesday night. But the families of both the miners claimed the body, since there was no way they could identify the corpse which was charred beyond recognition.

 

Ultimately, the Mishras got possession of the body after a Bharat Coking Coal Ltd supervisor identified it as that of Manoj, from the battery number allotted to him before he went into the mines.  In fact, that was the only way BCCL officials could identify the dead bodies and hand them over to the respective relatives for the last rites.

 

Pintoo Majhi, brother of Suresh Majhi, said, “My brother was not keeping well for the last few days. We had asked him to take leave. He had promised to come home during the Pujas … who knew this would happen.”

 

The BCCL management issued appointment letters to a member each in the 44 bereaved families. However, the management is in a fix over the remaining 10 families, since there is confusion over the actual claimant.