Chaos over body claims

Dubai/Abu Dhabi: "We need something to take home." This is the refrain of families who have laid claims to the same body.

Unable to identify beyond doubt that the loved one lying in the morgue is theirs, they need closure. A body has to be taken home for the last rites.

It is chaos at many hospitals as multiple claimants have emerged for many dead bodies. A total of 146 bodies have so far been identified from among the 158 killed in the Air India Express crash at Mangalore. Twelve bodies have yet to be identified.

As many as 54 bodies remain in hospitals and auth-orities are sending blood samples of the victims for DNA tests for identification.

The relatives of Ignatius D'Souza, 48, an Abu Dhabi resident who was killed in the crash, were about to take his body home when another family raised a dispute citing the shoes the victim was wearing, Vanitha Sequeira, a relative of D'souza said over the phone from Mangalore.

She said when they identified her uncle's body after cumbersome procedures, there was a sigh of relief, but it was short-lived due to the another claim.

"His face was not totally burnt but looked swollen and we could identify a cross mark in his hand", said Sequeira who hails from Mangalore.

But a family from Kerala claimed that the body was that of their family member, she said.

According to her, the authorities have decided to send a blood sample for DNA tests to Hyderabad [in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh state] and the results will take at least three or four days.

"My aunt [wife of the deceased] and two children aged 17 and 11 are totally broken and I don't know how can they wait," Sequeira said.

The body of Mohammad Bashir, 40, from Dubai is caught up in a dispute as three families have laid claims to his body. Moideen Kunji, his father-in-law who spoke to Gulf News from Mangalore said.

The family members were about to take his remains home, when two more families claimed that the body resembled their relative. "Everybody finds one or two signs that will give them the assurance. We need some thing to take home. We have lost him forever. But his wife is living only to see her husband for one last time," said Kunji.

According to him, relatives were waiting in the hospital since morning but Bashir's body had not been taken for a DNA test. The body of Bashir's brother, Abu Backer Siddique, 37, who also died in the crash was identified on Saturday and taken home for cremation.

Sequeira said she came across similar disputes because around 40 bodies were burnt beyond recognition. One man's body was taken back to hospital from funeral prayers in Mangalore because the family received the wrong body, Sequeira said.