After losing two children and his brother-in-law in the second of the three blasts in New Delhi on Saturday, a distraught Apurva Sharma is facing a new trauma. He says he has found the body of his four-year-old daughter, Upama, lying in a hospital.
'It is my Upama. I can clearly identify her by her teeth. For two days she has been lying here, I cannot wait any more,' Mr Sharma said. 'Nobody is listening to my cries.'
But the hospital refused to hand over the body to Mr Sharma because another family has claimed it.
Vijay Rathore says the corpse is that of his four-year-old daughter, Priya. 'It is my daughter, I am dead sure. How can one fail to identify his own daughter?' he said.
There are dozens of bereaved families caught in a tug-of-war over the custody of the remains. Two hospitals are conducting DNA tests to ascertain the identity of 22 unidentified bodies.
Health official Prasanna Hota said: 'These bodies, which were charred and badly mutilated, are decomposing very fast, making identification even more difficult. There is confusion over the identity of some bodies. A DNA test is the only way to settle all disputes.'
