HC seeks Delhi govt’s stand on framing of SOP for DNA testing to identify bodies

In March 2020, the court directed that “DNA matching of the body in question shall be undertaken on an urgent basis; and be completed at the earliest but not later than 31.03.2020” and that the report shall be communicated to the petitioner, Matbul Alam, within 24 hours of being prepared.

His counsel submitted on Friday that DNA matching had found that the body belonged to his brother.

In the 2020 order, the court had opined that there should be SOPs so that “such essential matters are dealt with in a timely and even-handed manner, without leaving the affected parties to the discretion, whims and fancies of the authorities”.

However, the court said on Friday that the issue was stated to have remained unresolved. It asked the Delhi government’s counsel to examine the issue and come back on the next date of hearing, May 12. It also permitted Alam’s counsel to give his suggestions, which the government may consider if the SOP is yet to be framed.

Alam’s brother Mohd Shahbaz Ali had been missing since February 25, 2020. Against the backdrop of the riots, violence and arson, he said he feared that his brother might have met with an unfortunate end. Alam learned that certain bodies had been lying unclaimed in the mortuary of Delhi’s Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital and that one of them had been found on the night of February 27, 2020, from Pushta, near Kali Ghata Cut in Karawal Nagar, which was the area where his brother had been last heard from.

On Alam’s request, on February 29, 2020 the blood sample of his father Shafi Ahmad was collected at the GTB Hospital for conducting DNA matching to confirm if the body recovered was his brother’s.

When the matter was listed before the court on March 19, 2020, Alam said two weeks had already passed, but no information was available about the result of the DNA test. He sought directions to the authorities to “expeditiously conclude the DNA matching, so that the petitioner and his family may know if the body is that of his brother, failing which the family may continue searching for his missing brother”.

In the previous hearing, it was also brought to the court’s notice that the same problem persisted in several cases with respect to the identification of bodies recovered in the 2020 riots. The court then directed the petitioner and the respondents to first examine if there were any SOPs already in place for prioritising the processing of samples including for DNA testing or matching. They were directed to file suggestions for formulating such SOPs if no such procedure already existed.