It’s a tough task for officials to identify the people who died in the fire that engulfed the three coaches of the Mumbai-Dehradun Express on January 8. Bodies are completely charred, leaving no identifiable traces. In fact, of the four bodies that arrived at the post-mortem centre at JJ Hospital, two are just a pile of ash and some bones. All that the forensics experts have found with the ashes and charred bodies are some bangles, a wisdom tooth and a few coins. These are the objects officials are banking upon for identifying the deceased.

Unidentified: With the bodies burnt to ash, the forensics team says it’s next to impossible to find traces of DNA to identify the deceased. Pics/Nimesh Dave