Amidst reports of digging out of skeletal remains from a mass grave in Panchmahal district in Gujarat, the Central Bureau of Investigation is rushing its team to the site to take possession of the skeletons in connection with the probe into the aspect of missing people in the Bilkis Bano rape-cum-murder case.
Highly-placed CBI sources said an officer of the rank of Deputy Inspector General was being rushed from Chennai who will be assisted by an Superintendent of police in completing the legal work of taking custody of the skeletons.
In the Bilkis Bano rape-cum-murder incidents, 17 people were encircled by a mob. In this case, the Gujarat Police had conducted a post-mortem of seven persons, while the remaining were shown as missing. CBI now suspects that the seven missing persons killed in the mob fury could be solved by conducting DNA of the skeletons recovered from the site.
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The CBI will also rope in experts from AIIMS to conduct the DNA test, the sources said and added that the skeletal remains could be brought to Delhi.
Meanwhile, the Gujarat police said they would be conducting DNA tests on the bodies. It is also contemplating taking legal action against those who dug up the grave without permission of the administration. Director General of Police A K Bhargava told PTI that the skeletal remains dug up at Lunawada village Tuesday were not "new finds" as claimed by an NGO but were accounted for by the police which had also conducted post-mortem of the bodies.
"The bodies buried in the grave near Panam river are those belonging to the victims of the Pandharwada massacre and each one of them has been legally accounted for during the investigation of the case," Bhargava said. "There are about 21 bodies buried at that particular spot," Bhargava said adding the bodies were buried by the local corporation after the post-mortem was carried out. "Cases were also filed in this regard and arrests made," he added. "We have also asked the Forensic Science Laboratory in Gandhinagar to conduct DNA tests of these bodies so that no controversy crops up in future," Bhargava said.
Asked whether the families were informed about the spot of the burial, the official failed to give a satisfactory reply, "I won't know if the relatives were informed. It is a three year old issue".
