The embers may have died at the Stephen Court building on Park Street,but tragedies continue to unfold at the SSKM Hospital where four bodies still lie unidentified. With 24 dead and at least 20 missing two days after the fire,more than seven families kept a watch at the mortuary over the charred remains of the four on Thursday hoping against their worst fears,afraid of their best hopes. Throughout the day,emotions ebbed and flowed at the SSKM Hospital as doctors struggled to settle the identities and the claims and counter-claims. A body (tag number 88/2) was identified first as that of Sangeeta Kumari. A post-mortem later,the doctors said it was actually that of a male. Later,Dipanjan Chandras family identified the body as him,another person in the missing list. But that wasnt the end of it. After some time,a row broke out when the families of Bidyut Acharya and Pritish Ghosh claimed the body to be that of their missing relative,and demanded a DNA test before it was handed over to anyone. For body tag number 88/6 there were two claimants either Tapati Chakraborty or Ruhi Parveen. Body tag number 88/5 had families of three persons fighting over it Mita Debnath,Fatima Ansari and Ruhi Parveen. For body tag number 88/12 again there were three claimants families of Richa Dutta,Bhagyashree Dhali and Arti Sharma. The hospital authorities had earlier tried to convince the families to sort out things amicably,but distressed relatives insisted on DNA tests. In case of a dispute over a body,DNA identification will be done,which will take a couple of weeks, said Pradip Mitra,Director,Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education and Research at SSKM Hospital. Himadri Sekhar Roychowdhury,the father of Jayatri Roychowdhury (23),sat under a tree in front of the hospital morgue. None of the four unclaimed bodies matches the description of his missing daughter. She wore a cream-colour dress. She was working in Guru Ispat and is untraceable since 2.45 pm on Tuesday, said Roychowdhury,clutching a picture of his daughter in his palm. Through out the night we were at SSKM Hospital. The hospital authorities are saying that all the bodies have been identified, said Gopal Das Gupta,the uncle of Amit Gupta. A third-year student of BCA,Amit worked in Win PC Technologies and is also missing. I went to the Shakespeare Sarani police station to lodge a missing complaint but the police refused. I have been to several hospitals. In SSKM,I found one body which might be my sons. But there also,I am told that there is another person who claimed the body, said Kashinath Gupta. Kush Kumar,the owner of the company,was saved as he climbed down with a rope. He told me he saw my son running towards the staircase, he added. A senior official of Shakespeare Sarani police station says they had a list of 20 persons who are missing. We have been asked not to take any further missing complaints, he says.
