Clothes from mass grave match those in cop photos: CBI

This new evidence, lying in the forensic lab at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences—on its way for chemical analysis at the Central Forensic Science Laboratory—is heaps of soiled synthetic garments and under-clothes, mostly belonging to women and children, exhumed along with remains of five bodies from the mass grave.

The CBI last week managed to get seven photographs of the bodies—allegedly of Bilqis’s family—some with clothes on them and some covered with ‘‘coarse, unstitched’’ cloth. The breakthrough came when the CBI, after questioning the 12 suspects in its custody, traced a local photographer, R K Soni, from Limkheda in Dahod district.

Incidentally, Soni was the photographer who was called by Head Constable Narpatsinh Patel to take pictures of the bodies when the Gujarat police conducted hurried post-mortems on them.

Not only do these match with the clothes exhumed, sources in the investigating team say there are some ‘‘extra’’ items of clothing including a pair of boy’s knickers.

The CBI is also investigating the angle of suppression of evidence by the Gujarat police in the case and this is why the recovery of the garments could prove to be incriminating for the police:

• The Gujarat police hurriedly cut pieces of the garments and sent them for chemical analysis 20 months ago when the killings took place. As per procedure, they should have sent the entire garments and tested them for blood and semen stains.

• Soni’s photographs show coarse cloth covering some bodies and the Gujarat police had sent these cut pieces as a possible cover-up also for chemical analysis.

• If the investigating team can establish that the garments recovered from the pit belonged to any of the seven ‘‘missing’’ members of Bilqis family, the Gujarat police will have a lot to answer for.

AIIMS team members say the probe will now take a circuitous path. Clothes recovered will now be sent to CFSL for blood and semen tests.

They will then return to AIIMS where DNA testing on bones and bone

fragments is being conducted. Blood samples of a few of Bilqis’s relatives have already been collected by the team.

Once DNA results are in and the AIIMS team has determined the age, sex and identity of the bodies, the photographs taken by Soni may provide the clinching evidence.