A mole on the chest, a scar on the knee: how families identified their sons
Families of two students who died in a building collapse in Delhi's Satya Niketan area identified their bodies using unique physical markers. The tragedy occurred after a paying guest accommodation collapsed, leaving parents to navigate the difficult process of identification at the hospital.
Why it matters
It underscores the human cost of unsafe urban infrastructure and the lack of regulated student housing.
A mole on the chest helped Pushpa Jhajj identify the body of her 19-year-old son, Arpit, at the AIIMS Trauma Centre on Monday, a day after the paying guest (PG) accommodation where he lived collapsed in southwest Delhi’s Satya Niketan.
Arpit had returned to Delhi from his native Dewas in Madhya Pradesh on Sunday morning after spending Raksha Bandhan with his family.
“He called me after reaching his room around 8 a.m. He then video-called around 11-11.30 a.m. Who would have known that was the last time we would speak?” Ms. Jhajj said.
Ms. Jhajj, her husband Bhupendra, and two other family members reached AIIMS around midnight but spent hours without clarity about Arpit’s whereabouts. It was only around noon on Monday that they were allowed to see an unidentified body.
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