Mangalore: DNA tests on 12 bodies fail

DHNS

Mangalore, 02 June 2010: Twelve bodies of the victims of the Mangalore Air India Express tragedy will be declared unidentified as the final DNA report of those bodies failed to match with the samples collected from relatives.

Mangalore City Police Commissioner Seemanth Kumar Singh told reporters that 34 relatives had given samples for DNA tests. “It is certified from the DNA profile tests that the unidentified bodies remaining are not related to any of the 34 claimant relatives, whose blood samples were used for analysis and comparison,” Singh said quoting the DNA report, which arrived on Tuesday.

“The report does not mention the actual reason why claimant relatives’ samples did not match with the DNA of the dead. Another report with more details, including what could be the reason for mismatch, is expected to arrive soon,” he said.

Clarifying apprehensions that the identification done in the initial stage might have gone wrong, Singh said: “We have sufficient proof that all the 146 bodies handed over to relatives were identified genuinely. Even though hundreds were gathered in front of the morgue, we could do our best to identify those bodies.”

Deputy Commissioner in charge Prabhakar Sharma said the remaining bodies would be declared unidentified bodies as per Section 34 of the Disaster Management Act. “The district administration will make arrangements for mass burial as per law tomorrow. Relatives of those victims, whose bodies were not identified, will be allowed to participate in the  process, if they are willing,” he added.

Those whose bodies are yet to be identified are: Ignatius D’Souza of Shaktinagar, Mohammed Ismail Hassan of Jeppu, K K Shetty of Kodialbail, Vaman Prabhu of Ashok nagar, all hailing from Mangalore; Aboobakker Siddiq, Abdul Aziz, brothers from Uppala;  Abdul Basheer from Bekal, Sukumar from Mailatti, Sujatha Survase (Air India crew member), Naveed Ibrahim, Malpe, Zainab Mohammed Ziyad and Mohammed Zubair from Udupi (both children).

Sharma clarified that there will be no legal conflict in the process of distribution of compensation and insurance to the kin of those victims, whose bodies were not identified.

“Death certificates will be issued in the names of all the 12 victims whose bodies were not identified. Hence, relatives need not worry about any kind of legal conflict in the distribution of compensation and insurance. The district administration has already issued death certificates of  60 victims,” he added.