Sonam's mother Sunita DeviA distraught Sunitha Devi sat outside the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital on Saturday, waiting to hear about Sonam, her 20-year-old daughter, who had not returned from her workplace in Mundka on Friday.
Till Saturday afternoon, Sonam’s family had not been able to identify her among the dead who were brought to the hospital. They had gone to the site in Mundka, hoping for some leads, but the police there were not able to offer any information, said Anurag, Sonam’s cousin.
“She was working in a company that dealt with cameras and WiFi. Her job had to do with connecting the antenna to the WiFi router. Her father died of Covid in May last year, and since she is the eldest daughter, she began working,” Anurag said. Sonam has two siblings, a younger brother and sister, who waited outside the hospital along with Sunitha Devi. “Since her brother is still underage and cannot start working, she decided to step in. Her brother had helped her land this job,” Anurag said.
Sonam stopped studying after she completed class 12. She had been working at the office in Mundka for around 10 months, and would earn around Rs 6,000-7,000 per month, Anurag said. “The family lives in a rented home in Mundka, close to the office. Her mother works in a factory,” he added. The family is originally from Fatehpur.
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Sonam’s brother alerted relatives when his sister did not return home by around 9 pm on Friday. The family then began to look for her, first in Mundka, and later at the hospital. “We were told that there are 27 bodies at the hospital here. We went to look, but we have not been able to identify her. We tried to tell the police about her features, but that didn’t help, since some of the bodies are not recognisable. For now, she is missing, since she has not been identified among the dead,” said Anurag.
Since Sonam was yet to be identified, the family was in a dilemma, and has been hoping that a DNA test will be done on the remains to identify them. “We have been told that it can take three to four days to identify it this way,” Anurag said. While Sunitha Devi returned home for a bit on Saturday, Anurag came back to the hospital, awaiting more information.
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