Dhubri, July 1: Family members of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) jawan Bibhuti Roy are relieved that his body has finally been identified but angry about the state government’s lack of initiative to bring it home.
Bibhuti, 27, had died along with 19 other rescuers when their Indian Air Force Mi-17 V5 chopper crashed while returning from a rescue sortie near Kedarnath in flash-flood ravaged Uttarakhand. A resident of Charaikhola village under Golokganj police station of Dhubri district, he had joined the border force on July 8, 2007, and was posted in Dehradun last year.
Deputy commandant of 8 Bn ITBP, Lokpal Singh, who is monitoring the rescue operation from the Gauchar rescue operation base in Uttarakhand, told The Telegraph that Bibhuti’s body was identified through a DNA test today. “His body is in the morgue of the Himalayan Hospital near Swami Ramnagar (Dehradun) and we are preparing to send it to the family this evening,” he added.
Singh said Bibhuti’s body would be first flown to New Delhi and then to Guwahati by the first available commercial flight and then sent to his house.
On Friday, ITBP officials from Guwahati had collected blood samples of the family members from their house and, according to an official source in Dehradun, sent these to the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics in Hyderabad for a DNA test on Saturday.
The source said the test that confirmed the identity of the body was conducted today.
Bibhuti’s elder brother and BSF radio operator Kishan confirmed having received the information from ITBP about the body being identified. “An ITPB official called up at 4.30pm today and confirmed it but he did not say when and how they would send the body.”
An uneasy calm prevails at Charaikhola, 40km from here, as the village mourns Bibhuti’s premature death.
Dhubri district Congress president, Sushil Chandra Roy who met the family, enquired about Bibhuti’s mother, who is seriously ill.
In the meantime, besides Bibhuti’s family members, the people and various other organisations of Golokganj have expressed deep resentment over the government’s lack of interest in hastening the body hand-over process.
They alleged that till now, no Dhubri district administration official had visited the family’s house or helped collect any information about the body despite knowing about the chopper crash.
All Koch-Rajbongshi Students Union president Biswajit Roy said it was very unfortunate that no government official had visited Bibhuti’s house till now or taken any initiative to bring the body home.
“Why is this injustice being done to the body of a jawan who had died performing a noble duty in Uttarakhand? He is a martyr now and the government should take immediate steps to bring the body home,” he said.
The student organisation also demanded compensation of Rs 10 lakh for Bibhuti’s kin along with a government job for a family member.
When asked about the arrival of the body, Dhubri additional deputy commissioner Mohan Saikia said they had not received any information in this connection. “If any information reaches us, we will let the family and the media know,” he said.
