Deesa aftermath: A toddler who lost entire family, 2 sisters looking for their mother

The blast, which occurred around 9.30 am Tuesday, wiped off Naina’s entire immediate family: her mother Daliben (25), father Rakesh Nayak (32), and older sister Kiran (5).

So far, the district administration has identified 19 bodies, while the blast has rendered two of them beyond recognition.

At the same hospital, two teenage sisters, Neha (19) and Nidhi (18), arrive with their uncle Lalit Verma. Their father passed away a few years ago and the women are now looking for their mother, Laxmi, who has been missing since the blast.

Naina, the toddler, is being attended to by Bittu Nayak (14) and Rajesh Nayak (22), her distant relatives.

Rajesh said the group had come to the Deesa warehouse on March 29-30 to make firecrackers; Naina had come along with her parents.

“Twenty-four of us had come last Sunday. We were brought by the contractors – Pankaj and Laxmiben. We had barely started work at the warehouse and this accident happened,” he says. While Pankaj was killed, Laxmi (50) is still missing.

The bodies of the deceased were placed in coffins and escorted by police in ambulances to their homes in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh whose government has sent over a team led by Minister Nagar Singh

Chouhan.

Rajesh recalled the chain of events as he saw them. “As other workers were in the warehouse, I got out to have a drink of water. My younger brother Bittu followed me. And as we reached the place, having water near the office, I heard a loud explosion. But my other younger brother, Vishnu, was killed in the accident. Following the blast, I found Naina outside the warehouse crying. I don’t know how she was saved. But then, an ambulance reached us and we were shifted here,” he says, adding that he is now helping the police trace unidentified bodies.

At the Deesa General Hospital, Chandrasingh Nayak from Sandalpur village from MP’s Dewas district is frantically trying to track down six of his relatives, including daughter Sunita and son-in-law Lakhan.

“My daughter Sunita and her husband Lakhan had arrived just 2-3 days ago,” Chandrasingh, who has been at the hospital since late Tuesday evening, says. “She had called me to inform me about the move. They were also accompanied by Lakhan’s brother Abhishek and two sisters Radha and Rukma and his mother Sayarben. I had even told her (Sunita) to come to Dholka if she did not like it there in Deesa,” adding: “They came to Gujarat because (they thought) the good wages here will help them come out of debt.”

Neha and Lalit have given their blood samples for DNA identification.

Says Neha: “My mother and Pankaj had come with others here to work in the warehouse with the help of a contractor, Harish Sindhi. We got to know about the accident through Harish who called us yesterday morning. But since then, his phone has been switched off.”

MP Minister Chouhan, who visited the hospital accompanied by Gujarat’s Labour and Employment Minister Balvantsinh Rajput and local BJP MLAs from Banaskantha district Pravin Mali and Aniket Thakar, told mediapersons: “This is a very sad accident and the entire country is standing by the victims and their families.” He further said, “I have discussed the matter with the District Collector and he has said that whoever is responsible in the accident will be strictly dealt with. I have met the victims and their families and consoled them. I also assured them that the government is with them, and they need not worry.”

The Banaskantha district police lodged an FIR against warehouse owners Khubchand Renumal Mohnani and his son Deepak on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

District Collector Mihir Patel said that 18 identified bodies have been sent back to Madhya Pradesh.