Bodies of 2 missing match with unidentified persons in Deesa firecracker warehouse blast; Woman was an agent

The two bodies have been identified as those of Laxmiben Nayak (50) and Sanjay Nayak (10), both residents of Handiya of Harda district in MP. Till Friday, the two were cited as missing.

As the two bodies were unidentified, police took DNA samples of the relatives of Laxmiben and Sanjay on Wednesday, officials said.

Banaskantha district Superintendent of Police Akshayraj Makwana confirmed that the two bodies have been identified as those of Laxmiben and Sanjay after their DNA samples matched with their family members.

Banaskantha district Collector Mihir Patel said, “The daughter of Laxmiben was here and so, we have sent her body today (Friday) after establishing the identity. Sanjay’s body has also been identified but his father is in MP and he wanted us to send the body there. So, we had sought a letter from the MP administration to take consent of Sanjay’s father with regard to the Banaskantha administration sending the body there. We have received the consent (late Friday evening) and will send the body to Madhya Pradesh tomorrow (Saturday).”

Survivors had told this paper earlier that they were brought to Deesa from MP by two agents Laxmi and Pankaj, both of whom are now dead.

Now, out of the total 21 persons killed in the accident, 20 have been identified to be residents of Madhya Pradesh. One person from Bhabhar of Banaskantha district, Mehul Luhar, is also among the deceased.

Deesa Rural Police have registered a criminal case in the matter against two persons, Khubchand Mohnani and his son Deepak, who are the owners of Deepak Traders which owned the unauthorised warehouse-cum-factory.

The two were arrested and a magisterial court sent them to police remand for eight days on Thursday.

On Friday, sources said, police visited the warehouse-cum-factory with the accused father-son duo. Sources further said that the two accused are also likely to be taken to MP for investigation.

On Wednesday, the Gujarat government announced a new, state-level Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe into the blast.

Notably, this state-level SIT, comprising an IAS officer, an IPS officer, an FSL officer and an engineer, was formed around 12 hours after the first one was constituted by the Inspector General of the Border Range comprising Banaskantha police officers. The new SIT has been ordered to submit its report within 15 days.