Surat chemical plant fire: Bodies of 7 labourers handed over to families for last rites

The deceased have been identified as Navsari resident Divyeshkumar Patel as well as Pandesara residents Santosh Vishwakarma, Sanat Kumar Mishra, Dharmendra Kumar, Ganesh Prasad, Sunil Kumar and Abhishek Singh. All were natives of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

As the bodies could not be identified initially, blood samples from each were matched with that of samples taken from the family members of the missing labourers at the Surat forensic science laboratory (FSL). On Friday evening, the FSL handed over the reports to the police.

Sachin GIDC police Inspector J R Chaudhary said, “The blood samples matched with those of the missing labourers. We have handed over the bodies to their families for carrying out final rites.”

After the seven labourers were traced, one more labourer who was injured in the fire had succumbed, taking the toll to eight. He was identified as Pramod Madan Gautam (40).

Chaudhary, meanwhile, said that out of the Rs 50-lakh compensation announced by Aether Industries for the families of each of the deceased, 50 per cent of the amount will be paid to the children and the rest to the wives of the deceased. Those labourers who were unmarried, the entire amount will be handed over to their parents, he added.

The police had registered an offence of accidental death into the incident.