Mortal remains of Lanka blast victim reaches B’luru

Three-days after series of bomb blasts ripped the island nation of Sri Lanka claiming 325 lives, the Indian High Commission at Colombo and the Karnataka government on Tuesday confirmed the identities of eight deceased from the state.

However, the officials at both the ends are yet to complete diplomatic formalities establishing the whereabouts of two other Indians - Narayan Chandrashekar and Remurai Tulsiram.

The mortal remains of S R Nagaraj, which reached Bengaluru on Tuesday evening, were kept at the mortuary of M S Ramaiah Hospital. The bodies of other travellers died during the attack will reach Bengaluru by Wednesday evening, according to officials and relatives of the deceased travellers. Sources revealed that the bodies of Narayan and Tulsiram had no claimants and officials are awaiting permission to conduct post-mortem in Colombo. Senior officers said that Tulsiram may have hailed from Hyderabad in Telangana.

According to Yelahanka MLA, S R Vishwanath, who identified his deceased relative S R Nagaraj, told DH that the sight at the police mortuary where over 200 bodies were laid to be identified was heart-wrenching. “It was the first-come-first-serve basis and everyone was cooperating in completing the formalities, including issuing death certificates to the kin after post-mortems were conducted of the identified bodies,” Vishwanath said.

The MLA added, “The authorities were strict with only blood relatives or kith and kin of the deceased who were allowed to identify the bodies using photographs and other recognisable details as they did not want any mix-ups.” Senior doctors with police and Embassy officials at the police morgue, along with Jayaratne Funeral Directors Private Limited, a funeral service provider, were helping with formalities to identify the body, packing it after post-mortems and dispatching it home destinations via Sri Lankan Airlines.

Flight can bring 4 bodies

Each Sri Lankan Airline flight can ferry only four bodies at a time since the ramp has the capacity of four coffins to be placed during transit. “Hence, formalities of the mortal remains of S R Nagaraj was finished first and his body was despatched by an evening flight which reached Bengaluru by Tuesday night,” Vishwanath said.