Dixit Solanki, a 32-year-old seafarer, died aboard a vessel caught in the West Asia conflict. (Express Photo)Mitali Solanki did not sleep on the night of April 4. She sat with a pile of documents, checking and rechecking, charging her phone, charging a power bank. Thirty-five days after her brother Dixit, a 32-year-old seafarer, died aboard a vessel caught in the West Asia conflict, his remains were finally making their way back to Mumbai. Nothing should go wrong now, she said.ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW VIDEOAt 1.30 am, the family received a message. The skeletal remains would arrive at the international airport cargo terminal at 4.15 am. The message came from the Directorate General of Shipping, from V Ships India Pvt Ltd, from the Indian embassy and consulate in Dubai.Coincidentally, it came only after the family had moved the Bombay High Court three days earlier, filing an urgent plea citing weeks of delay and silence. The matter is scheduled to be heard April 6 by a Division Bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad. The family believes court intervention was what finally moved things.By 3.30 am, Mitali and her father Amratlal were already in a car. They reached the terminal by 4 am and were told to return after 5. They did not leave.Also Read | ‘At least we can light a chulha here’: Scenes from a railway station in BiharThe cargo section was busy even before dawn, consignments moving under dim lights while father and daughter stood outside completing paperwork, coordinating with officials by phone, waiting for clearances that came one by one across the next several hours. When an official arrived around 6.45 am to process additional documentation, a pass was finally issued, but only one family member could go inside. “I will go,” said Amratlal. “I want to see everything. How he is brought. What is being brought.” Father Amratlal Solanki and sister Mitali Solanki received the skeletal remains of seafarer Dixit Solanki on Sunday morning (April 5, 2026) at the Mumbai International Airport’s cargo section. (Express Photo/Ganesh Shirsekar)It took nearly two hours from that point — a first round inside, a trip to Sahar police station to submit documents, a return to the terminal, another round of verification — before the coffin was finally handed to him. When Amratlal emerged from the cargo area, Mitali rushed toward the ambulance waiting outside, reaching out to touch the box that carried her brother’s remains, her only physical connection to him now.They checked the name and details written on the surface, made sure the documentation matched, and stood there for a moment before the ambulance moved toward the mortuary.Story continues below this adThe family has decided not to proceed with the last rites until a DNA test confirms the identity of the remains. They have sought help from the Directorate General of Shipping and the shipping company, both of whom have assured support. A senior official from the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways said that necessary arrangements for the test were being explored. Dixit Solanki’s family has been waiting to receive his remains since March 1, when he died in a missile attack. (Express Photo/Ganesh Shirsekar)“We have waited for over 35 days. We can wait a few more days,” Mitali said. “We will only put him to rest once all our doubts are cleared. We do not want to live the rest of our lives with the question that what if these were not Dixit’s remains?”She said those doubts had been shaped by the shipping company’s conduct since the beginning. When Amratlal went to meet the rescued crew members who had returned to Mumbai, he said he was not allowed to speak to them directly, or to record any conversation. They were told to say only what they had been instructed to say.The company’s internal investigation report, which the family had been requesting for weeks, was shared with them only on April 4, the day before the remains arrived. “From the photos in the report, the ship does not appear to be severely damaged,” Amratlal said. “None of the crew who returned seem to have lost their belongings. But we have still not received Dixit’s personal items such as his trolley bag, his laptop, his phone, his hard drives. Nothing.”Story continues below this ad“The compensation and money do not matter when a son is lost,” he added. “If he had earned and brought that money home himself, it would have been different. How can we use money that comes from his death?”The remains are now at the mortuary. The family will file an FIR at a local police station to initiate the DNA testing process.