Gobinda Talapatra and wife Rekha had gone to Readymade Centre to buy jamai sashthi gifts for their daughter and son-in-law.

But the afternoon tragedy at the Sodepur garment store left Gobinda, a schoolteacher, dead and Rekha battling for life at AMRI Hospital, in Salt Lake.

“We were on the first floor of the shop when the lights went out. The shop employees told us to wait, expecting power to return soon. We were feeling suffocated and a few minutes later, could not breathe at all. My husband collapsed,” Rekha recalled in a choked voice, lying in her hospital bed. The Barrackpore resident was yet to know that her husband was no more.

Dulal Sarkar, 54, a resident of Ghola, had gone to the store to buy wedding gifts. “I suddenly felt breathless and slumped to the floor. I regained my consciousness a while later, but was still feeling uneasy,” said Sarkar, who has been admitted to Balaram Mandir Seva Pratisthan.

Relatives of several other shoppers and the store employees who got trapped and suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning — 12 of them died — thronged outside the hospitals, waiting anxiously for updates.

Subir Chakraborty, 35, who worked as a mechanic in the store, was among the 12. “His wife Mili is two months’ pregnant. How will we console her?” asked Subir’s elder sister Ruby.

Raktima Ghosh, lying in a critical condition at Apollo Gleneagles, had gone to Readymade Centre leaving her three-month-old son in her in-laws’ house. “She doesn’t want to stay in hospital and is desperate to come back home despite being critically ill,” said sister Rima.

roster of death

Died at Balaram Mandir Seva Pratisthan
Subir Chakraborty, 35 (employee);
Sachchidananda Roy, 35 (employee);
Ranjana Saha and Arabinda Saha

Died at Panihati State General Hospital
Unidentified male;
Pulakesh Deb, 45;
Tulsi Bose, 55;
Bimalendu Bose, 40;
Arun Dutta, 45 and
Gobinda Talapatra, 53 (school teacher, wife Rekha injured)

Died at a Barrackpore nursing home
Manish Roy, 55

Biswajit Samanta, 35, was declared dead on arrival at SSKM Hospital