Ship mishap: 2 families claim 1 body

Kakinada: Three  bodies in the Godavari boat capsizing incident were brought to the Government General Hospital at Kakinada from the Rajahmundry Government Hospital for gender identification.

According to sources, a dispute arose between two families over one body. Both sets of family members claimed the same dead body belonged to them.

Sources said that one of the family members of Surabhi Ravindra claimed the body belongs to Ravindra. Initially, the family members of K. Rajasekhar agreed but some of the identificatory marks made they also claimed the body was Rajasekhar’s.

The bodies are too decomposed to identify in any conclusive manner.

In another case, one dead body is in such a decomposed condition, it is difficult to tell whether it was male or female. These two bodies and also a headless dead body were sent to GGH, Kakinada’s forensic lab to identify the genders of the bodies.

According to a police official, after identification of the genders of the bodies, samples will be preserved for DNA and then it will be decided whose bodies they are.

Meanwhile, the family members of Ramyasri, of Manchiryala village, are in hapless condition. Sources said that Ramyasri’s parents performed a funeral for her 20 days back. Her sister and relatives reached Rajahmundry to identify her.

However, the decomposed state of the bodies made even gender identification impossible, accentuating the family’s grief.