New Delhi: The 12 people who died in the blast near the Red Fort Monday include an Uber driver, a bus conductor, and a shopkeeper. Many of them were family men, and some were the sole breadwinners in their households.
ThePrint has put together a profile of all the deceased and their families’ desperate search for them through the night.
Pankaj Sahni, Delhi resident
Nikesh Kumar spent the night looking for any update on his brother-in-law, Pankaj Sahni. In the early hours of Tuesday morning, he came across a photo of a white car on social media—it was completely crushed and under heavy police security.
It was only when he zoomed in and saw the number plate that he figured out that it belonged to Sahni.
“I just went to google what happened, and that’s when I got to know it was an explosion,” Nikesh said. “I made frantic calls to Pankaj, none were answered. I just took my bike and left in search of him; I stayed put at the emergency site.”
Sahni, 22 years old, completed his 12th grade and took up work as a cab driver to support his family. On Monday evening, he was dropping off one of his neighbours at the market near the Red Fort. He was alone in the cab.
“I got to know from the media, we had no information about Pankaj’s whereabouts,” said Nikesh.
On Tuesday morning, Nikesh looked tired. Dust had settled on his face. Waiting for the call that would decide the fate of Sahni’s family, Nikesh stood outside the mortuary, holding on to the iron pillars. All of a sudden, he got a call.
“Confirm kar dia,” he told his relatives, who stood behind him.
He broke down, but soon had to wipe his tears and begin the paperwork.
“Pankaj’s phone remained switched off from 7 pm. The entire night from 8 pm to 7.30 am, I spent the night on the streets, only to receive a call from the mortuary itself,” Nikesh said.
When Nikesh was called inside the mortuary to identify the body, he asked the workers to remove the blood from Sahni’s face. They refused.
After completing school, Sahni started working at Meesho, where he got laid off later. He had a driver’s license, so he began working as a cab driver. He was the sole breadwinner of the family, taking care of two sisters and a younger brother.
The family, originally from Samastipur in Bihar, has been staying in Kanjhawala in Northwest Delhi since 2001.
Dinesh Mishra from Delhi
Raj Tripathi spent Monday night outside the emergency ward of the Lok Nayak (LNJP) Hospital, hoping fervently that his relative Dinesh Mishra was alive. The next morning, Tripathi would find out that the 32-year-old hadn’t made it.
Mishra worked at a sari and lehenga shop in Chandni Chowk. He was at the site when the explosion took place.
Tripathi spent all his time making phone calls to the police and doctors, requesting a medical visit to check if Mishra was alive. “All I wanted to know was if he’s inside, and if he’s alive,” he said.
By Tuesday morning, Tripathi had come to the morgue. He stood outside, collecting Mishra’s body. “I thought he’d make it, but he couldn’t… our family couldn’t see him one last time,” he added.
Mishra had been working at the shop for over 10 years now. He had two children: a boy and a girl. “He loved his family, he worked hard for them, everything he did was to ensure his family gets to live a dignified life,” Tripathi said.
Recalling his last conversation with Mishra, Tripathi said: “All I could speak to him was about how his work was going, I asked him if he’s doing okay and if his salary is enough… He was very supportive.”
Now, Tripathi and the family are taking the remains of Mishra’s body to Shravasti, his native place.
Ashok Kumar from Amroha
Vijay Kumar was struggling to believe how his brother Ashok Kumar’s body ended up in the mangled form it was in when he reached the mortuary of Maulana Azad Medical College.
“Ashok was working as a conductor inside a cluster bus in Lal Qila… this was unexpected, we prayed he had survived,” Vijay said, facing a flood of mics and cameras.
Ashok, 34, was a resident of Amroha, Uttar Pradesh, who had come to Delhi for work. Not only did he provide for his two children, but he also took care of his brother’s three kids.
Until late evening, Vijay and his family had no information about Ashok’s whereabouts. “It was only when we got a call from the Amroha police. They came home to tell us about Ashok. They found his bus identity card, and that helped them figure it out,” he said.
When Ashok’s wife saw her husband’s mangled body inside the stuffy mortuary, it left her in a state of shock. “Ashok’s forehead was covered in wounds and blood, and his intestines were out,” she told Vijay.
Noman, Shamli resident
Sonu, who works as a tile mason, was on his way to work Tuesday morning. But a call from his uncle, asking him to check his cousin Noman’s whereabouts, would lead him to the mortuary of Maulana Azad Medical College.
Noman, a resident of Shamli in Uttar Pradesh, worked at a cosmetic store. He came to Delhi to buy cosmetic items for his shop. Noman was the sole breadwinner of his family since seven months ago, when his elder brother was diagnosed with kidney failure and couldn’t work.
“Noman’s father went inside the mortuary; he asked me to come with him, but I didn’t have the courage to look at my brother’s body. He was the closest in our family,” he said.
Noman was 23 years old.
Lokesh Aggarwal, Amroha resident
Lokesh Aggarwal, 52, who sells manure in Amroha, had come to Delhi to meet a relative who was admitted to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.
“After visiting the relative, he came toward Red Fort, where he called his friend Ashok to meet at Lal Qila metro station,” said Sonu Aggarwal, Lokesh’s brother.
He deboarded at the station, and moments later, the car exploded.
“We only figured out what had happened when we saw the news on TV channels,” Sonu added.
The police used Lokesh’s phone and traced the last dialled number to Amroha, when the family was contacted.
“He was my eldest son. He went to Delhi yesterday to meet his son’s mother-in-law, who was hospitalised there. This is a terrorist attack. We want the government to help his family members, and the terrorists should be given the harshest punishment,” said Om Prakash, Aggarwal’s father.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)