Mundka fire: 10 more bodies identified, 6 more to go

With this, bodies of as many as 21 out of the total 27 victims have been recognised, police and forensic officials said on Wednesday.

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police on Wednesday said that 10 more victims of the Mundka fire tragedy have been identified based on their DNA reports taking the total number of victims recognised so far to 21, police and forensic officials said on Wednesday.

The Mundka fire, which broke out on May 13, is one of the worst fire incidents that Delhi has seen since the 2019 Anaj Mandi tragedy that claimed 43 lives.

Twenty seven people were killed in a massive fire in a CCTV cameras assembling unit in north-west Delhi’s Mundka on May 13. Since the number of people presumed missing was the same as the number of bodies/charred remains found in the building, the police put the toll in the tragedy at 27.

Of these 27, bodies of eight victims were identified by their relatives on May 15. However, since the bodies were charred beyond recognition, the police insisted on DNA test on all bodies. On Tuesday, the police was handed over the DNA test report by the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), based on which three more bodies were identified.

Deputy commissioner of police (outer) Sameer Sharma said that the 10 who have been identified through their DNA reports are: Pooja, three sisters Madhu, Preeti and Poonam, Musharat, Geeta Chauhan, Sonam, Asha and Amar Nath Goyal, the father of Harish and Varun Goyal who were running the illegal factory in the building. The Goyal brothers were arrested along with the building owner, Manish Lakra.

Emotional scenes were witnessed on Wednesday at the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital’s mortuary where the bodies of the three who were identified on Tuesday were handed over to the relatives of the victims.

Police added that the mortal remains of the 10 identified on Wednesday will be handed over to the victims’ kin on Thursday after completing all formalities.

Families of victims who got together at the hospital on Wednesday said that they were yet to get any compensation from the government. “We were told that we will be given ₹1lakh before the DNA reports are handed over but it’s been a month and we have not received a penny. We thought that we will go and meet the sub-divisional magistrate but we decided not to go today,” said Akbar, husband of Musharat whose body was identified on Wednesday.

Akbar also said that the families of victims are also demanding that members of a few families of the victims should be given a government job since those who died were sole breadwinners of the family. Moni (19), sister of deceased Pooja (21), said that their father passed away years ago and the mother keeps ill. “Me, Pooja, our younger sister Tannu (15) and our mother Gayatri Devi used live together and we were dependent on Pooja’s earnings because me and Tannu are studying. As of now, we are managing with ration being provided by NGOs,” she said.

SDM (Punjabi Bagh) Gurpreet Singh said that they have received necessary approvals to disburse the partial payment, and the amount will be released soon.The Delhi government had announced a compensation of ₹10 lakh to the family of each victim. “We have received approval to make the payment of ₹1lakh now and the remaining ₹9lakh after the DNA match. The amount will be released to families shortly,” she said.