The West Bengal government has begun collecting blood samples from immediate family members of people missing in Nepal after the August 26 flash flood, with DNA profiles to be matched against those of bodies recovered during search operations.
“Blood samples are being collected from first-degree relatives of those who are still missing. The DNA profile reports will be sent to Nepal Police for matching with the DNA profile of the dead bodies recovered,” a senior police officer, aware of the developments, said.
At least 37 people from the state, mostly Kailash-Manasarovar pilgrims, remain missing. This includes an entire group of 30 pilgrims who were travelling with a Kolkata-based travel agency. The agency’s two staff members, who were travelling with the pilgrim team, also went missing.
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“The blood sample of my mother-in-law was collected on Thursday. Officers from the local police station had come. There is still no news of my wife,” former TMC MLA Subhranshu Roy, son of former Union minister Mukul Roy, said.
{{/usCountry}}“The blood sample of my mother-in-law was collected on Thursday. Officers from the local police station had come. There is still no news of my wife,” former TMC MLA Subhranshu Roy, son of former Union minister Mukul Roy, said.
{{/usCountry}}Roy’s wife Sharmistha was a member of the pilgrim team that had left Kolkata on August 21. She had last contacted her family on the night of August 25. She spoke to her children. On August 26, the team was supposed to enter Tibet. They had reached the immigration centre at Kerung when the flash flood hit.
Also in the team was 61-year-old Subhash Chandra Ghosh, a former employee of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and a resident of Durgapur in West Burdwan.
“The police came and took us to the district hospital on Thursday where the blood sample was taken. They said that the DNA profiling would be done,” Ghosh’s elder daughter Gargi said.
“There is no news of Ghosh yet. He went alone with the team. His wife and two daughters didn’t go. He last updated his WhatsApp status from Rasuwa around 6:14 am on August 26. Thereafter his phone was found to be switched off,” Ghosh’s childhood friend Subhojit Sen told HT.
A senior officer of the state health department said that blood samples were being taken from first-degree relatives, which include father, mother, son and daughter, to prepare the autosomal STR DNA profile. All district hospitals and medical colleges have been authorised to collect the samples.
“The police and home department were coordinating. The samples are likely to be sent to the CFSL laboratory to get the profiling done,” a senior officer said.