Mole, birthmark help mother identify son body in hospital

A mole on his neck and a birthmark on his leg were all that helped Akshit’s mother identify her 18-year-old son on Monday, a day after the building housing his paying guest accommodation collapsed in southwest Delhi’s Satya Niketan.

Akshit, a first-year B.Com student at PGDAV College, had returned to Delhi from his hometown on September 5, just two days before the collapse. His mother, Sweta Singh Yadav, had spent days searching for a PG that would give her son basic comforts so he could focus on his studies.

But on Monday, instead of seeing her son return to his room, she arrived at AIIMS to identify his body.

“I had visited five or six paying guest accommodations in the area before choosing one for my son. I wanted him to have basic facilities, including an air conditioner and a washing machine, so that he could concentrate on his studies,” Sweta told PTI.

Akshit’s friend Yugank said the college administration informed students that a student staying in the collapsed building was missing, prompting them to rush to the spot. “We first went to the spot and then came to AIIMS. We were just praying that it should not be Akshit,” he said.

The initial attempt to identify the body yielded no certainty. But when Akshit’s mother was brought in, two small identifying marks provided the confirmation the family had been dreading —a mole and a birthmark.

The building, which housed a boys’ paying guest accommodation in Satya Niketan area near Delhi University’s South Campus, collapsed around 1.30 pm on Sunday while repair work was underway. Twelve people were rescued from the debris, of whom seven died.

The tragedy was made more painful by the fact that Akshit had apparently noticed a warning sign in the building before the collapse.

Yugank said Akshit had earlier mentioned a crack in the building, but it had subsequently been covered. The news sent shockwaves through Akshit’s hometown of Katni in Madhya Pradesh, where neighbours and friends remembered him as a young student who had secured admission to the University of Delhi.

Sandeep Tripathi, a neighbour of Akshit’s family in Katni, said the family learnt about the collapse around 7 pm on Sunday and immediately began making arrangements to reach Delhi.

“Last night, at around 7 pm, the colony residents suddenly received the news that the building where Akshat lived had collapsed. His father, who was in Rajasthan, reached Delhi, while our ward councillor Dabbu Rajak took his mother and sister to Delhi during the night,” he told

The family reached Delhi Monday morning and searched for Akshit and gathered information about his whereabouts, but initially could not find any confirmation. “After reaching there at around 9 am, they searched everywhere and gathered information, but could not find anything. Later, when they went to the trauma centre, a mark on Akshat’s body helped in identifying him,” Tripathi said.

After the post-mortem, the family left Delhi with Akshit’s body in an ambulance at around 1.30 pm and was expected to reach Katni between 2 am and 3 am, Tripathi said.

Akshit’s father, Manta Singh Yadav, worked in the construction sector, while his mother, Sweta Singh Yadav, is a homemaker, he said. Krishna Rajak, another friend of Akshit from Katni, said the 18-year-old had secured admission to Delhi University only last year after clearing the CUET.

“He took admission there just a year ago. He had come home for Raksha Bandhan and stayed for two-three days before returning to Delhi. And now, suddenly, we got the news yesterday that the building where he was staying had collapsed,” Rajak told.

Rajak said Akshit’s mother and younger sister travelled to Delhi, accompanied by his father, while Akshit’s father and cousin brother came from Rajasthan.

The family was now returning to Katni with Akshit’s body, he said.

“I spoke to my father, and he said they would reach Katni around 3 am. They are travelling by ambulance. We have not received much information yet, but we were told they had left Delhi and would reach Katni between 3 am and 4 am tonight,” he said.

Multiple agencies, including the Delhi Police, Delhi Fire Service, NDRF and Delhi Disaster Management Authority, continued rescue operations through the night.

The Delhi Police apprehended the building’s owner, identified as Hariram Gupta, from Rajasthan’s Bhiwadi area on Monday.