Family performs funeral rites after Bhotekoshi flood victim’s body goes missing

After six days of searching hospitals and recovery sites, Raj Kumar Shrestha’s family performed his funeral rites without his body. They used an effigy made from kusha grass, a practice prescribed in Hindu scriptures when remains cannot be recovered.

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The family reached Simtar to collect the body, but it was not there. We were told it had been sent to TU Teaching Hospital. We waited for five days. When the body could not be found, we performed the cremation using a kusha effigy.

The 30-year-old from Chautara Sangachokgadhi Municipality in Sindhupalchok had been travelling to Rasuwagadhi, where he worked as a driver, when the Bhotekoshi flood struck. On the day of the disaster, a driver sent his family a photograph of a body that resembled Raj Kumar. Relatives travelled to Simtar in Nuwakot to identify and receive it, but were told the body had been sent to TU Teaching Hospital.

They waited five days at the hospital without finding him. The family later saw a similar photograph in Nepal Police records of missing people and recovered bodies, where it appeared under registration number 350. They still do not know where that body went. Relatives say Nuwakot police told them it had been sent to the hospital, while the hospital said it never arrived.

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Where did the body under registration number 350 go? Police in Nuwakot say they sent it, while the TU Teaching Hospital says it never arrived. So where has it disappeared?

Police have urged families not to draw conclusions before formal identification. Some bodies may require DNA testing, and Sindhupalchok police chief Kaji Kumar Acharya said the government had requested DNA samples as part of the legal process. The family nevertheless carried out Raj Kumar’s seventh-day rites, despite having no confirmation of his identity.

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The government has called for DNA testing. That is also the legal procedure. There are also our traditional practices.

The loss follows another tragedy in the same family. Raj Kumar’s mother died at an oil mill during the 2015 earthquake, according to his uncle. Their experience reflects the ordeal of hundreds of families moving between hospitals and rescue centres in the flood-hit districts. The number of missing people reported from Sindhupalchok had reached 239, according to the district chamber of commerce, while only two bodies from that list had been recovered. Among those still missing is Anjan Thapa, whose family appealed for help after seeing activity on his Facebook account and hoped his mobile location could be traced.

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When we suddenly saw his Facebook account active today, our hope returned. We are pleading for help to trace his mobile location.