Barge found on seabed, toll 66; 13 other bodies washed ashore

MUMBAI: The death toll of personnel of barge Papaa (P-305) that sunk off the city’s coast in the wake of cyclone Tauktae went up to 66 after six more bodies were recovered on Saturday. While 186 people of the total 261 on the barge were rescued during the week, nine are still missing, and the search for them is on.
Five of the recovered bodies are still to reach Mumbai’s shores, and of the 61 already at JJ hospital, 43 have been identified but 18 are not. The city police on Saturday began collecting blood samples from the 18 victims for DNA testing so that samples could be matched with relatives for identification. Police said samples may also have to be collected of the five bodies that are on the way on naval ships that conducted search operations.
Five bodies were also found washed ashore along the coast in Murud and Alibaug talukas on Saturday. One body was found in Murud, two in Navgaon and one each at Awas beach and Dighode beach in Alibaug. The Raigad district administration has asked ONGC and Mumbai police to ascertain if the bodies are of those on P-305 or those on the tugboat Varaprada (which also capsized, with 11 of its men still missing) or of fishermen who were stuck in the waters when the cyclone hit the coast. Their blood samples may be taken too, police said.
Of the 43 bodies of P-305 staffers which have been identified, 41 have been handed over to their families.
While warships INS Kochi and INS Kolkata sailed back to the naval dock on Saturday. INS Betwa, Teg and Talwar were joined by survey vessels INS Makar, Tarasa and Subhadra to locate the nine missing personnel and the barge and tugboat’s wreckage. Coast Guard vessels, helicopters and ONGC offshore vessels have also been deployed for the rescue mission.
Mumbai police spokesperson, DCP S Chaitanya S said, “The Mumbai police has so far got 61 bodies. While 43 bodies have been identified, 41 of them have been handed over to their relatives. The police are in the process of collecting DNA samples of the remaining bodies for identification.”
The blood samples of the victims and their relatives will be sent to the Kalina Forensic Sciences Laboratory and the bodies handed over to families once the DNA samples match.
Relatives, kin and friends of those still missing continued to make the rounds of JJ Hospital, where the bodies that have been brought back have been kept. Udaram Ranawat (70), who is from Rajasthan and had come to JJ Hospital on Friday, returned to his hometown on Saturday with the body of his elder son, Pappuram (32), a crew member on the barge. Ranawat has two children. His younger son, Amraram (30), who also worked on the same barge, went missing during the cyclone and is yet to be found.
The family of engineer Anthony Edwin (27) had almost lost hope of getting to see his body after they received information on Saturday that the body brought to JJ Hospital could not be flown to Kerala as the flight on which it was to be taken had got cancelled. But another flight was later available, and the body was to reach Thiruvananthapuram late on Saturday. “He will be buried with honours on Sunday morning in Kollam,” said Edwin’s uncle Joseph Daniel.
Meanwhile, the Director General of Shipping has sent notices to the owners of Gal Constructor, SS-5 and Sagar Bhushan – the other three vessels that had gone adrift because of the cyclone and whose staffers were all rescued and brought back to shore by six Navy warships -- to carry out immediate repair work on the vessels for the damage they have suffered. “The notices havee been issued so that there will be no oil spill. Also, immediate measures were asked to be taken to clear Gal Constructor that ran aground with 137 personnel onboard,” said a source from DG Shipping.
The Yellow Gate police on Thursday registered an FIR against the barge captain, Rakesh Ballav, and others on a complaint made by chief engineer Mustafizur Rehman Shaikh (47), who is among the survivors. The captain is still missing.