A mole on the chest helped Pushpa Jhajj identify the body of her 19-year-old son, Arpit, at the AIIMS Trauma Centre on Monday.
| Photo Credit: SHASHI SHEKHAR KASHYAP
A mole on the chest helped Pushpa Jhajj identify the body of her 19-year-old son, Arpit, at the AIIMS Trauma Centre on Monday, a day after the paying guest (PG) accommodation where he lived collapsed in southwest Delhi’s Satya Niketan.Arpit had returned to Delhi from his native Dewas in Madhya Pradesh on Sunday morning after spending Raksha Bandhan with his family.“He called me after reaching his room around 8 a.m. He then video-called around 11-11.30 a.m. Who would have known that was the last time we would speak?” Ms. Jhajj said.Ms. Jhajj, her husband Bhupendra, and two other family members reached AIIMS around midnight but spent hours without clarity about Arpit’s whereabouts. It was only around noon on Monday that they were allowed to see an unidentified body.“His face was completely distorted; his left cheek was heavily injured. The only way I could identify him was the big mole on his chest,” she said.‘Difficult to recognise’For 18-year-old Akshat Singh Yadav’s family, an old knee injury became the unlikely clue that helped identify him.His uncle, Biren Kumar Yadav, said Akshat’s face was so badly injured that it was difficult to recognise him. A childhood injury and the stitches left behind after an operation eventually confirmed his identity. Akshat’s family had been at the hospital since 4 a.m. and received his body around 2 p.m.“His mother had asked him not to go and stay a little longer. But he said he had to leave for classes. Now he is no more,” Mr. Biren said.Akshat had lived on the first floor of the PG for a year and had returned to Delhi only two days earlier from his home in Madhya Pradesh. His body was recovered around 3 a.m. during the search operation. Published - September 08, 2026 01:22 am IST
