This story is from March 22, 2015

‘Show mercy, help me trace my son’s body’

Kin Of Missing Persons Struggling For Remains
‘Show mercy, help me trace my son’s body’
RAE BARELI: Sitting in a chair along the Gaura bazar road, a woman in her 80s kept waiting for any news on her son. Presumed dead by railway authorities and government railway police, body of 55-year-old train accident victim Surendra Kumar Bajpayi alias Dhoon could not be traced. The distraught family interrupted burial of another accident victim from Fursatganj tehsil but their struggle does not seem to end.
The Bajpayis are sure Dhoon is no more. A police officer had shown them a dead person’s photograph who resembled Dhoon on Friday. With his cell phone turned off and the man missing, they had no reason to doubt the officer. But, having examined the body closely at Rae Bareli’s mortuary on Saturday, Bajpayis were sure it was not Dhoon.
“My father had shaved his head five days back as part of last rites of a relative. The hair on the head of the man shown to us was inches long. His skin colour and features too were different,” added Dhoon’s son Golu.
Out of the eight unidentified bodies, seven had been claimed on Saturday at Rae Bareli. The last being of a middle-aged man and officials felt it was of Dhoon.
“Look at my condition, show some mercy and help trace the body of my son,” pleaded Kunta the mother before officials with folded hands and trying to balance herself on the patch of grass on the roadside as Golu tried to console her.
A farmer, Dhoon had boarded the train from Lucknow on Friday morning. Native of Pathai village in Maurawan area of Unnao, Dhoon’s in-laws stayed in Rae Bareli. Team of railway officials from commercial department had called Bajpayis to the mortuary in Raibareli but to no avail.

The hopes of Bajpayi family were again rekindled when an officer asked them to visit Dhundhi village in Fursatganj. In the morning, a group of people had taken a corpse of Ayub aged about 50. “Railway officials asked his kin not to bury the body so that confusion was ruled out. It was not my father and we apologised to the family for interrupting the burial. They looked relieved and not upset over the development and offered to pray for us,” added Golu.
Case of Prasad family from Raniresi village in Jammo tehsil of Amethi was similar. Jamuna Prasad (45) was on the train but could not be found anywhere. Prasad’s younger brother Shatrughan visited the mortuary in Rae Bareli on Saturday and left around 6pm with a mixed feeling. “I have no idea whether he is dead or alive. I don’t know how to face my nephew and nieces. My relatives in Lucknow could not find Prasad at KGMU’s trauma centre and nobody at Bachrawan or Rae Bareli has a clue about my brother,” he said. Prasad worked at a brick kiln factory in Mohanlalganj and boarded Janata Express on Friday.
Friday evening onwards, both families have been making rounds of government hospitals in Bachrawan, Rae Bareli and Lucknow and have been pleading before railway officials to trace the missing breadwinners.
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