Ranchi, Apr 16 The Jharkhand High Court on Thursday directed the police to ensure that a sample of the skeleton recovered in Bokaro in the missing woman case be sent to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) in Kolkata for further examination.
The police recovered the skeleton, including hair, of a woman on April 12, and it is suspected that the remains belonged to the 18-year-old who had been missing for eight months.
While hearing a petition filed by Rekha Devi, the mother of the missing woman, a division bench comprising Justices Sujit Narayan Prasad and Sanjay Prasad directed the CFSL in Kolkata to furnish a report of DNA matching of samples of the skeleton with those of Rekha Devi and her spouse within two weeks.
The court also ordered the police to conduct the postmortem examination of the skeleton in the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) here.
The court was informed that the DNA test samples have already been collected from the parents of the missing woman and the skeleton, which will be sent to Kolkata.
The victim's mother had lodged a complaint on July 24, alleging that her daughter had been kidnapped. She had not been seen after going to Chas College in Pindrajora police station area for admission to a graduation course.
The police recently arrested a man who, the police claimed, murdered her as the victim had an affair with him and was pressuring him to marry her.
The accused led investigators to the crime scene, resulting in the recovery of 19 bone fragments, strands of hair, the victim's clothes and the murder weapon.
The DGP, Bokaro SP and other officers had appeared before the bench on Thursday, following a direction of the high court.
Advocate General Rajiv Ranjan informed the court that 28 police personnel of the Pindrajoda police station have been suspended by the Bokaro SP.
The court, in an oral observation, said that the suspension of personnel of a police station is not enough.
Senior officers like the DSP, SP and DIG ranking officers who were also in charge of the case should have been suspended as well, the bench observed.
The special investigating team (SIT) which is probing into the case was also present in the court and produced documents related to the investigation.
The court directed the DGP, Bokaro SP and members of the SIT to appear on the next date, which will be heard after a fortnight on receipt of the report from the forensic laboratory in Calcutta.
