AHMEDABAD : The DNA test report of the Pandarvada communal riot victims is likely to put the Gujarat police in a spot for refusing to hand over the remains of the bodies to their relatives for religious burial for the last four years.

Report sent

The Centre for DNA Test and Finger Printing Diagnostics, Hyderabad, according to sources, has sent its report of the DNA test of the skulls and bones of some of the riot victims recovered from a dug-out pit on the bank of the Panam river near Lunawada.

The DNA test was carried out at the instance of the Gujarat High Court to establish the blood relations of the victims with some of the villagers, who claimed to be relatives.

But this was doubted by the police.

The copies of the report have been sent to the High Court, the CBI, under whose supervision the digging was carried out, and the Gujarat Government. While none of the sources is ready to confirm the contents of the report, it is reliably learnt that the report has found certain similarities with the blood samples of those who claimed themselves to be relatives of the victims.

The first official confirmation could be expected only on June 20 when the case is scheduled to be reopened for hearing in the High Court.

The issue created a controversy after some of the relatives, on December 28 last year, reportedly dug out the pit on information from some Lunawada municipal sources that some bodies of the riot victims were buried on the banks of the Panam river instead of in the official burial ground of the village.

Even as the Lunawada municipality registered a case of illegal digging of a burial ground against some of the relatives and an official of the Mumbai-based voluntary organisation, the Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), who was present at the time of digging, the High Court asked the CBI, which was inquiring into the Pandarvada riot case at the instance of the Supreme Court, to supervise further digging.

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