Bitan Adhikary and Sameer Guha, who had left the city on vacations with their families, returned to Calcutta on Wednesday evening in sealed coffins. Their wives and children accompanied them.

Many family members and friends who were waiting outside the airport broke down as the information of the arrival of the flight reached them, before they were allowed inside the airport in their cars.

Several state ministers and BJP leaders went to receive the bodies. Some of them
tried to console the bereaved families.

A while later, a convoy of hearses and cars carrying their family and friends emerged out of the airport. A third hearse was kept on standby.

Calcutta Mayor Firhad Hakim and state power minister Aroop Biswas went to receive the families on behalf of chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

BJP MLA Agnimitra Paul, BJP MP Abhijit Gangopadhyay and leader of the Opposition in the Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari also went. Adhikari was seen holding Bitan’s son Hridaan after he stepped out of the aircraft.

Adhikari raised slogans and was seen interacting with Bitan’s wife Sohini.

The two convoys left for the homes of the two victims. One went to Behala while the other to Baishnabghata Lane.

Sameer’s wife Sabari was seen crying inconsolably in the vehicle. The convoy reached their home on Jagat Roy Chowdhury Road in Behala Sakherbazar around 8.50pm.

A crowd had been waiting in the Behala neighbourhood. The car stopped near a local club and one after another, those waiting paid their last respects. Mala Roy, the Trinamool MP from Kolkata South, was among them.

Sameer is survived by his wife and 17-year-old daughter Shubhangi who wrote her Class XII exams this year.

At Baishnabghata Lane, family and friends of the bereaved Adhikary family bade the 40-year-old electronic engineer farewell. His elderly parents — Bireswar Adhikary, 87, and Maya, 75 — had come from their Behala address to the apartment where Bitan was last staying during his visit to India.

Neighbours, friends and family gathered outside their apartment to pay their last homage. The younger of two siblings, Bitan is survived by his wife Sohini and their three-and-a-half-year-old son Hridaan who goes to montessory school.