Gujarat firecracker blast: Kin of Banaskantha victims say bodies taken away without consent 

Family members protest outside hospital after firecracker factory explosion in Gujarat, bodies handed over without consent, sparking controversy.

Family members of more than half-a-dozen victims of Tuesday’s firecracker factory explosion in Gujarat’s Banaskantha district sat in protest outside the Deesa Civil Hospital on Wednesday (April 2, 2025), alleging that the bodies of their loved ones had been handed over to the authorities of the Madhya Pradesh government without their consent.

The explosion at the firecracker factory killed at least 21 people, most of them hailing from Madhya Pradesh.

Most family members The Hindu spoke to outside the hospital said they started arriving from Madhya Pradesh around Tuesday midnight to early morning on Wednesday, but were not allowed to see the bodies.

Chander Singh Nayak, father of 23-year-old victim Sunita, wrote a petition to the Chief Minister of Gujarat, saying that he and family members of many other victims, were not given a chance to the see the remains of their loved ones despite informing the district authorities that they were on their way from Madhya Pradesh to identify them. He added that they had not been given copies of the post-mortem reports either.

Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani joined the family members from Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday afternoon at the Deesa Civil Hospital, calling the incident “bigger than Hathras” [2020 gang-rape in U.P.], alleging that there was a conspiracy to “hide the bodies” so that a fair probe could be skirted.

However, Madhya Pradesh Cabinet Minister Nagar Singh Chouhan, who is coordinating the return of the bodies, denied claims that the families were not allowed to identify the body, adding that some people were “politicising” the issue. He said families of some victims had arrived late so they could not see the bodies.

Mr. Nagar told The Hindu that the bodies of victims from Dewas district were dispatched around 10 a.m. on Wednesday, and those from Harda district were sent around 12.30 p.m. He said the bodies should reach their destinations in Madhya Pradesh by around 11 p.m. on Wednesday.