Nearly a month after the June 2 Balasore train accident, which left 291 persons dead, the Railways has been unable to ascertain identities of up to 81 victims.
Samples of hair, teeth, bone, nails and muscle tissue for each of these victims was flown to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) in New Delhi, after the Central Bureau of Investigation took over the probe. Meanwhile, bodies of these 81 victims have been kept at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Bhubaneshwar.
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There is a mismatch between the number of bodies and those who have registered their claim on them, which led the Odisha government to halt the handover process and run DNA-matching exercise for each body to remove ambiguity. “While there are 81 bodies, up to 84 claimants have registered with the AIIMS Bhubaneshwar claiming to be blood relatives of the deceased, and have deposited their blood samples,” a senior railway official told The Hindu. The Centre and the State are wary of any error while handing over bodies as it also involves meting out a compensation of ₹15 lakhs.
The Delhi-based forensic officials say that extracting DNA from samples of victims brought to them is proving to be ‘challenging,’ in some cases. “For instance, in certain samples, extracting DNA from teeth is tough as the tooth has been destroyed by tobacco consumption. In other cases, muscle tissue has been excessively decomposed,” sources handling the samples said.
PCR technology
Each DNA extraction and profiling cycle uses Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) technology which takes nearly a week. “We have been unable to get satisfactory results on samples, and hence we have had to repeat up to three or more PCR cycles,” the source further added.
Experts from the Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology of the AIIMS, Delhi, are also involved in the identification process. With ‘challenge’ samples it is not possible to extract and profile DNA every time. In a separate project run by the AIIMS, Delhi, and the CFSL, called Project Umid, since 2019, physical features of up to 670 unidentified bodies that were received from Delhi were recorded. Of these, DNA extraction was possible for only 559 cases. “In up to 111 cases were unable to extract the DNA. That’s the issue with ‘challenged’ samples, they are so decomposed it’s impossible to extract the DNA. The success rate is not 100%,” sources said.
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Each year, Project Umid receives 150 to 200 unidentified bodies for DNA profiling. “The Balasore accident was a tragedy of huge proportions. We were suddenly inundated by not one or two but 81 samples, hence the process has become more time-consuming,” said the source.
After the DNA profiles have been ascertained for victims, they will be subjected to an algorithm built under Project Umid for ascertaining a match with the control samples received from blood relatives.
Officials from the AIIMS, Bhubaneshwar, said that they had the capacity to store the 81 bodies for the next six months. Hapless kin from multiple States, including Bihar and West Bengal, meanwhile continue to wait to hear from authorities who have failed to give clarity to the relatives on timelines. As many as 35 of these relatives are camping near AIIMS, Bhubaneshwar, even as authorities had requested families to return to their States after depositing their blood samples.
Mix-up in handing over bodies
These families also include kin of those whose bodies had been accidentally handed over to other parties due to mix-up, a week into the accident.
Shivkant Roy who hails from Cooch Behar district of West Bengal is awaiting results which may ascertain the identity of his deceased son Vipul Roy. “While I wait for closure on what happened to my son, I was told that the body that I had claimed to be that of my son by looking at the photograph has already been sent away with claimants who hailed from Bihar,” Roy told The Hindu.
With each passing day, the window for closure narrowly reduces in case of the waiting families. “We fear there will be a scenario where some of these families may never receive closure due to the tragic turn of events and the failure to achieve a match,” a senior forensic official involved in the process said.
