ITV News has heard testimony from a British family who are now questioning whether they were given the correct remains of their relatives who died in the tragic Air India crash, ITV News Correspondent Sejal Karia reports.
Words by ITV News Correspondent Sejal Karia and Deputy Content Editor Sarika Gandhi
If you have a story on the Air India Crash you would like to share, you can contact investigations@itv.com
Altaf Taju lost his parents and brother-in-law in the Air India flight, which crashed on June 12, 2025, in Ahmedabad, India.
The flight never arrived, and his family never came home.
Parents Adam and Hasina Taju, along with Taju’s brother-in-law Altafhusen Patel, were among the 241 people killed on board. Only one passenger survived the crash.
Flight 171 was the worst aviation disaster for the British since 9/11.
Now Altaf’s grief is bound up in a question no family should ever have to ask.
When he laid his parents to rest, he asked: “Is it our loved ones that we buried?”
This is the question that has troubled the family since the day of their parents’ funeral.
“We need answers. Where are they? My uncle rings me on Sundays. He used to show me the graves of my mum and dad… I’ve told him not to because I don’t know who I’m praying to.”
On a wintery day in London, we met Altaf and his family.
As we sat down for the interview, which lasted nearly an hour and a half, it became clear they were haunted not just by the loss of their loved ones but by the events surrounding their deaths.
“We now sit at home and just pray to God that they rest in peace. We just left everything to our God now because I don’t even look like the graves because I don’t know who they are.”
It is a series of events that took place in India and the UK that have led the family to question whether they were given their loved ones to bury.
The belongings that should have come home with his parents instead appeared on social media.
Altaf tells us he saw his father’s wallet, travel documents and his mother’s gold bangle online, as people were searching through the rubble of the crash site. The items have never been returned to the family.
What authorities eventually gave him was a plastic container labelled only with the flight number, 171.
For Altaf, the contents of the container were unrecognisable.
“It was a male’s tracksuit bottom… all burnt holes in it… in the pocket… it was a male’s shaving cream tube,” he said, describing the moment he opened the container.
“My mother does not wear tracksuit bottoms.”
The room fell silent as he recounted with a single tear that this was handed over on the day of his mother’s burial.
The Indian authorities also prevented the family from opening the casket, leaving them unsure who they had buried.
The family’s suspicions deepened when coroners in the UK later found a small fragment of his mother’s remains mixed with those of another repatriated British victim.
“They found a trace, a small trace of a tooth…my DNA matched… my mother’s tooth.”
Altaf told ITV News: “We bury in our religions, we have to bury where other religions cremate … and thinking of what happened, where it could have been, don’t want to say it, but my parents could have been cremated.”
For Altaf, the pain has been compounded by a lack of answers and accountability.
He is one of 40 British families who have written to the Foreign Office asking for help.
A letter was sent in August, but there’s been no substantive reply.
We asked Altaf whether anyone from the British government had expressed their condolences to him and his family.
Without hesitation, he responded: “Nothing. Nothing whatsoever.”
Sarah Stewart, a partner at Stewarts Law, who represents the Taju family, said: “The families have given us harrowing accounts. The lack of support from the British government. In their darkest hours, in their time of need, they felt abandoned; they were distressed.”
ITV News contacted the Ministry for External Affairs in India for a comment, and is yet to receive a response.
We also contacted the Foreign Office, who told us: “Our thoughts remain with all the families and loved ones of the victims in this tragic accident.
“The Foreign Office continues to provide support, including dedicated consular caseworkers to each family who requests our support and remain in contact with the Indian authorities.”
ITV News was allowed to accompany Altaf’s family in India as they lovingly tended to his parents’ graves – even though they’re now unsure who is actually buried there.
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