Bone of contention — UK, India differ on identity of hostage

But CFSL is firm. “I am more than certain that the DNA tests confirming that the bones were that of Paul Wells are 200 per cent correct. Let the British forensic experts come to our laboratory and prove our findings wrong,” says director M S Rao who added that he hadn’t received any “official communication” from London contesting his findings.

Judith Slater, a spokesperson of the British High Commission in Delhi, when contacted today said: “I can only say that the British Foreign Office in London made the statement on the basis of forensic experts’ report in UK. The diplomatic office is in no position to explain how this discrepancy between Indian and British forensic experts arose. The issue may be resolved if the experts of both the countries talk to each other. Probably that should happen in the next step.”

It was the CFSL in Calcutta, which was handed over the samples of the exhumed remains earlier and after prolonged examinations and DNA tests had confirmed in January that the body was that of Paul Wells.

Incidentally, after the CFSL submitted this report, a British police team flew down to India and visited the laboratory in Calcutta. The team returned after collecting samples tested by the CSFL.

Asked if the British foreign office’s claim raised questions over the CFSL’s credibility, Rao said: “It is they who will be finally embarrassed, not us.”

The CFSL is one of the few centres in the country which conducts tests in major criminal cases. It has been involved with the Mattoo case, a high-profile baby swap case in a city hospital and in another case in which all four members of a family were murdered in a house in Oxytown, a southern suburb of Calcutta.