Wayanad Police Seek Blood Samples Of Parents Of Missing Odisha Doctor

Bhubaneswar: Wayanad police have written to Odisha DGP, seeking blood samples of missing doctor Swadheen Panda’s parents, sources said on Sunday.

Swadheen, a senior resident doctor at SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack and a resident of Raghunathpur in Bhubaneswar, has remained untraceable since the catastrophic landslides struck the hilly regions near Meppadi in Kerala early on July 30.

Amid efforts to identify Panda among the unidentified bodies and body parts through DNA matching, blood sample of his sister Somali Panda, camping in Wayanad since July 31, was taken. “Blood samples of the missing person’s sister was sent to Regional Forensic Science Laboratory, Kannur. The authorities, however, said that sister’s blood sample is not sufficient for the purpose and suggested for urgent collection of the blood samples of his parents,” the letter read.

Meanwhile, three more body parts were recovered from the Kanthanpara river during a massive search to trace those still missing after the landslide by police, fire and rescue personnel and volunteers, members of youth outfits and survivors on Sunday.

“178 bodies have been identified. 51 bodies have been unidentified and 130 people are missing. The search team is trying their best to get the body or body parts. Today, we recovered three body parts. After the postmortem, we can confirm if they belong to a human or an animal,” Kerala Minister PA Mohamed Riyas told ANI.

Swadheen and his wife Sweekruti Mahapatra along with Bishnu Prasad Chinara and his wife Priyadarshini Paul  left for Bengaluru on July 26 for a conference. They celebrated Bishnu’s birthday at Bengaluru on July 27 and then left for Wayanad, where they stayed at Linora Villa at Chooralmala. The two couples were asleep in the villa when a devastating landslide swept them away at around 2 am.

While Priyadarshini and Sweekriti survived the deadly landslides, Bishnu’s body was found in Chooralmala on July 31.