The death toll resulting from the high intensity blast in Dombivali’s chemical factory Probace enterprises on Thursday, rose to 11 casualties by Friday evening, as the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) recovered five more bodies from the debris at the blast site.
The Manpada police confirmed that out of the eleven dead are two family members of the owner of Probace enterprises. They have been identified as Sumit Vakatkar and Snehal Vakatkar, the son and daughter-in-law of Probace’s owner Vishwas Vakatkar.
While Snehal’s disfigured body was pulled out of the debris by the NDRF on Friday morning, an unknown body recovered from the blast site on Thursday itself was later identified as that of Sumit’s.
Meanwhile, the four other bodies received from the site remain unidentified, and the Manpada police is in the process of tracing their identities.
Commenting on the matter, S.S. Dhikale, investigating officer in the case, said, “There are four missing person complaints registered with us and we are in the process of matching the identities. The bodies are completely disfigured so it is difficult to identify them.”
Dr Reena Padvakar, the attending doctor at Kalyan’s Rukmini Bai Hospital, where the deceased are being taken for a primary post mortem, said, “The bodies were in a very bad shape when they were brought in due to the impact of the blast. For example, Snehal died due to Neuro heamoragic shock resulting from the blast. It means that all her organs ruptured due to the pressure from the blast. Therefore, identifying bodies is a difficult task.”
Meanwhile, a police official Anand Valve, who had been on duty at the blast site since Thursday, suffered injuries to his head and arms during the rescue operation. He had to be admitted to the ICU at AIIMS hospital. Sujata Shashi, incharge of casualty department at the hospital confirmed that his condition was serious and he may need constant medical attention for a week.
