UP: Four unidentified bodies recovered from river handed over to Nepal

MAHARAJGANJ: Four unidentified bodies recovered from the Narayani-Gandak river in Uttar Pradesh's Maharajganj district were handed over to the Nepal administration after post-mortem examinations, officials said on Monday.

The bodies of three women and a man were recovered on August 27 from the river and had been kept at the district hospital mortuary as their identities could not be established.

DNA samples were collected from all four bodies during the post-mortem examination to facilitate their identification, officials said.

Nichlaul Tehsildar Amit Singh, who led the operation, said, "the bodies were transported in two ambulances and handed over to the Nawalparasi administration at the Maheshpur border near Thuthibari late Sunday night."

Additional District Magistrate Prashant Kumar said, "all necessary legal and administrative formalities were completed before the bodies were handed over to Nepal Police."

The DNA data will also be shared with the Nepal administration according to procedure to help match the samples with those of families searching for missing persons, officials said.

The recovery of the four bodies came amid the flood situation in Nepal, with authorities in Maharajganj maintaining surveillance along the river as strong currents carried bodies downstream into Indian territory.

On August 27, three bodies, including those of two women, were recovered from the Gandak river in Maharajganj after they were apparently swept downstream from flood-hit Nepal. An SSB rescue team monitoring the river spotted the bodies and retrieved them using a motorboat.

On August 28, officials said four bodies had been recovered from the river and were being kept at the Maharajganj district hospital mortuary. Authorities were in contact with Nepal to ascertain their identities and check whether they were among people reported missing following the floods and landslides.

Maharajganj shares a border with Nepal, and the district administration had earlier sounded a high alert following the flash floods in the neighbouring country. River levels and water bodies receiving water from Nepal have been under continuous monitoring, officials said.

The death toll from flash floods in Nepal rose to 903 on Monday, with bodies continuing to be recovered, while 4,247 people are still missing following the disaster, authorities said.