Odisha Train Tragedy: Woman Attempts to Deceive Authorities for Compensation By Falsely Claiming Dead Body

An incident of a woman fraudulently claiming a dead body as her husband has come to light in Odisha after a Balasore train tragedy where 288 people died.

She was found crying non-stop but when the officials contacted the police in Badamba, they found out that no one from the area was travelling in any of the ill-fated trains. The reason for such a fake claim is - compensation!

As a result, the Odisha government has ordered the police department and the Railway authorities to strictly deal with fake claimants. "All should be very careful in this regard and take prompt as well as stern action in such cases," Chief Secretary Pradeep Kumar Jena tweeted on Monday by tagging the Odisha DGP, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation and railway ministry.

As far as the compensation is concerned, the Odisha government has announced Rs 5 lakh exgratia to the kin of the deceased who belongs to Odisha while the Prime Minister's Office is paying Rs 2 lakh with the Railway department handing over Rs 10 lakh to the victim's families.

A 40-year-old woman named Gitanjali Dutta from the Baramba area in Cuttack appeared at the temporary morgue in North Orissa Chamber of Commerce and Industry Business Park in Balasore where the bodies have been kept for verification by the family members.

"I suspected her intention as she looked unusually calm unlike the bereaved kin of the other deceased passengers. She saw some of the photographs of the unidentified bodies that we had displayed outside the temporary morgue. She picked up one photo and claimed him to be her husband," The Times Of India quoted Bikas Kumar Palei, an SI, as saying.

On asking her to produce relevant documents, she gave her Aadhaar Card which had the name of her husband Bijay Dutta. "Then she showed her own Aadhaar card. We tried to verify her claim by contacting the Baramba police station under which she stays. Baramba police reverted after an hour and informed us that her husband is alive. She started running when we reprimanded her and warned her of arrest. Her intention was to claim the compensation," Palei said.

In order to authenticate the identification of bodies and keep fake claimants at bay, the Odisha government on Monday started conducting DNA sampling in certain doubtful cases before handing over the mortal remains to genuine relatives.

"We will hand over the body only if the DNA matches. We suspect some people might be making false claims over bodies because of the hefty compensation from the Railways and the respective state governments," an official told PTI.

Meanwhile, around 101 bodies are yet to be identified following the horrific train tragedy, involving the Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, the Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express, and the goods train.