Pratiksha Paudwal, 32, a Badlapur resident, was concerned on Thursday when her husband Vishal Paudwal 39, who worked in a company in Dombivli MIDC, did not reach home around 9.30pm — the usual time he returns from work. Finding his phone switched off, she called a friend of Vishal, working in the same place, who then told her about the deadly blast. Since then, Pratiksha along with her eight-year-old son Yug, has been trying to trace her husband at hospitals in Dombivli. Like her, at least 10 families have approached the Manpada police station in Dombivli reporting that their family members working at the blast site are missing since Thursday. Vijay Kadbane, senior inspector of the Manpada police station, said, “Ten missing persons complaints have been filed since Thursday evening and we are trying to trace them.” After taking details of the families and the missing persons, police have been sending them to Shastri Nagar hospital in Dombivli (West), where unidentified bodies are sent for postmortem. “Since bodies of deceased persons were badly disfigured, we are collecting their DNA samples to match with their family members to ascertain the identity of the deceased persons. Five bags of body parts were brought to the Bai Rukminibai Hospital, Kalyan. From the teeth, hair or long bones, we are securing DNA samples to ascertain the identity of the missing people,” said Purushottam Tike, chief medical officer, Bai Rukminibai Hospital. Vishal Paudwal was working with Cosmos company as graphic designer for the past six months, before which he was with Andheri-based Star Auto. His wife Pratiksha said that he had joined the Dombivli-based company to cut down the long commute to Andheri. “Since our television is not functioning, I got to know about the incident late at night. My close relatives left for spot to look for Vishal, while I reached Dombivli early on Friday with my son,” said Pratiksha. Not finding him anywhere, she lodged a missing person’s complaint at the Manpada police station from where police sent them to Shastri Nagar hospital to give DNA sample. “My son Yug has no idea why his blood sample was being collected. We did not disclose him the reason,” Pratiksha said. Vishal spent a major amount of his savings for the treatment of his 65-year-old mother, who has been battling cancer for five years. “She lives with us. We haven’t told her yet about the tragedy. She would not be able to accept it,” said Pratiksha. Bhiwandi resident Hridaynarayan Rajbhar, along with his relatives Dinesh Kumar, have lodged a missing person’s complaint with the Manpada police station and reached Shastri Nagar hospital trying to get information about his missing brother Satyanarayan Rajbhar, 38. Satyanarayan, used to work as housekeeping staff at the office of owners of Amudan Chemical Pvt Ltd. He used to live with his wife Rekha, four daughters and a son in Sonarpada, Dombivli area. Originally from Ayodhya, Satyanarayan had been working with Mehtas for 10-12 years, says his brother Rajbhar. Rekha had last spoken to husband Satyanarayan at around 1pm on Thursday, just 30 minutes before the blast. After learning about the incident, the family tried calling Satyanarayan but phone was found switched off. Not finding him at the site, the family approached police and filed a missing person's complaint. Another missing person is Bharat Gorakhnath Jaiswar, 42, who worked as a maintenance supervisor at Amudan Chemicals Pvt. Ltd. “His phone was ringing for an hour after the blast and later it went off and we were asked by the police to reach out to the hospital,” said Bharat's uncle Dashrath Jaiswar. He joined the company just 15 days ago. https://twitter.com/IndianExpress/status/1793595302366286055?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1793595302366286055%7Ctwgr%5E655c64ad2994999d7f1447fb93dfffd0acda74eb%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Findianexpress.com%2Farticle%2Fcities%2Fmumbai%2Fat-least-four-workers-injured-in-boiler-blast-in-maharashtras-dombivli-9347178%2F A lab worker at Amudan, Manoj Chauhan, hailing from Gorakhpur, is also missing and his family fears the worst. The 36-year-old lived in Sonapada near the Dombivli MIDC. Panic spread in the family when Chauhan did not come home for lunch and his wife received a call from his colleague, informing about the accident. Dorika Chauhan, Manoj’s brother said, “He has gone missing, leaving his four children behind.” Dr Suhasini Badekar, Chief Medical Officer of Shastri Nagar Hospital, said that seven DNA samples have been collected from the families of the missing ones to match with the body parts collected from the site. The reports are to be expected soon. Among others missing from the incident site are Rakesh Rajput, 41, Sirazuddin Ahmed, 24, Dhavan Waghane, 38, Mahesh Das, 22, Ravi Kumar, 40, and Ravi Rajbhar, 30. Search operations on On Friday, rescue teams of the KDMC, NDRF and the Fire brigade used poclains and JCB machines for search operations. According to the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC), eight people have been declared dead in the incident and 68 were injured. Of the injured, 42 were discharged, while 26 are still admitted at different hospitals where 12 are in ICU but stable. KDMC commissioner Dr Indu Jhakhad said, “The total count of recovered bodies is still 8. Additionally, part of a body was recovered Friday evening.” The bodies were dismembered in the high-impact blast, a senior police officer said adding, “Multiple body parts were recovered from the blast site and it is difficult to ascertain how many people have died at this stage. Once the DNA tests of families of missing persons are completed, we may be able to ascertain the final number,” Notice to factory The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) on Friday served a closure notice to the Amudan Chemicals Pvt Ltd that said the company owner would not be able to start the business without taking its clearance. According to Rajendra Rajput, regional officer, MPCB, Kalyan, safe closure notice has also been served to eight companies around Amudan Chemicals that were badly damaged in the incident. They will have to first submit a structural audit report to the department before commencing the operations, Rajput added.
