The blood samples of four police officers were drawn late on Saturday in presence of the Registrar Judicial, Jammu and Kashmir high court, for preparation of the DNA profiles in the Shopian rape and murder of two young women.
Shopian case: 4 accused cops arrested
Official sources in Srinagar said the four police officers, Javed Iqbal Mattoo, the then district police chief Shopian, deputy superintendent of police, Rohit Baskotra, Station House Officer Shafeeq Ahmad, and sub-inspector Qazi Abdul Karim were brought to the high court late on Saturday evening under heavy security and presented before the Registrar Judicial in whose presence forensic experts collected the blood samples.
Sources said the samples were later sealed and will be hand delivered at the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Kolkata and at forensic science laboratory at Hyderabad.
They said the officers had resisted the collection of the samples initially, but the forensic experts from government medical college led by Dr Fareeda Noor drew the samples from them.
The state high court had ordered that the blood samples of the four officers be collected for the preparation of DNA profiles to be matched with the vaginal smears of the two victims, 17-year old Asiya Jan and her 22-year old sister-in-law Neelofar Jan whose bodies were recovered by a village stream on May 30.
The officers have already moved the apex court against the state high court order and the case is listed for hearing on Monday.
The authorities had initially claimed that the two women died of drowning in the stream, but under mounting public pressure and widespread protests, the government was forced to institute a commission of inquiry.