Anandapur warehouse fire: Families receive remains of 18 workers after DNA mapping
A senior police official said the district administrations of Purba and Paschim Medinipur and South 24 Parganas had been informed by the Baruipur police district, and the local police stations coordinated with families for the process.
Twenty-five days after the devastating warehouse fire at Anandapur, police on Saturday handed over the DNA-identified remains of 18 deceased workers to their families from the Katapukur morgue.
According to police sources, of the 18 identified victims, 16 were from Purba Medinipur, one from Paschim Medinipur, and one from Baruipur in South 24 Parganas.
A senior police official said the district administrations of Purba and Paschim Medinipur and South 24 Parganas had been informed by the Baruipur police district, and the local police stations coordinated with families for the process.
Families were first asked to report to Narendrapur police station for paperwork before being taken to the morgue, where the remains were handed over.
The names of the victims who have been identified: Kartik Jana, Sandip Kumar Maiti and Sujit Singh (residents of Nandakumar), Nantu Khada and Subrata Khara (of Sutahata), Krishnendu Dhara (of Pingla), Basudeb Haldar (resident of South 24 Parganas), Buddhadev Jana (of Maina), Biswajit Sau (of Pingla).
Prosenjit Ghara, Basudeb Bera, Tapankumar Dolui and Jaydev Majhi were residents of Panskura.
Gurupada Sau, Khudiram Dinda, Shashank Jana, Ramakrishna Mandal and Bimal Maiti were residents of Tamluk.
Relatives of deceased Sujit Singh said, “We got a call yesterday night that his remains have been identified. We are now waiting for the handover of whatever is left of him.”
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Khudiram Dinda, another relative, added, “Finally, there is some closure for us. Every day we have waited for this call.”
Another relative Hare Krishna Majhi said, “My uncle’s son, Jayden Majhi’s, body has been identified through DNA mapping. But we are still waiting for my brother’s body to be identified.”
A fire broke out on January 25 night at the warehouse of Pushpanjali Decorators and spread to the adjacent Wow Momo warehouse in Nazirabad, Narendrapur. Many workers sleeping inside were trapped and burnt alive. In that incident, a missing person complaint was filed at Narendrapur police station by the families of 27 people. The bodies were charred beyond recognition, necessitating DNA testing.
While samples were collected from blood relatives of the deceased, nine body parts remain unidentified.
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The police sources said their DNA reports are expected soon, after which death certificates will be issued by the concerned panchayat offices.
Three people — Gangadhar Das, owner of Pushpanjali Decorators, and Raja Chakraborty and Manoranjan Sit, managers of the Wow Momo factory — have been arrested and are currently in Baruipur correctional facility.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh for each deceased’s family and Rs 50,000 for the injured.
The state government announced Rs 10 lakh for each victim’s family and a civic police job for one member of each family.
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Pushpanjali Decorators has given Rs 5 lakh compensation to each family, while Wow Momo has also compensated its three deceased employees.
Tanusree Bose is a dedicated journalist reporting for The Indian Express from Kolkata. Her work focuses sharply on the complex administrative, political, and judicial developments across West Bengal, establishing her as an authoritative voice in regional news coverage.
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