DNA of Bilkis kin isolated, shot in arm for CBI probe

The CBI probe into the case of Bilkis Yakub Rasool, who was gang raped while 14 of her relatives were being killed during the Gujarat riots,...

The CBI probe into the case of Bilkis Yakub Rasool, who was gang raped while 14 of her relatives were being killed during the Gujarat riots, received a shot in the arm when forensic experts, after weeks of painstaking work in the laboratory, succeeded in isolating DNA samples from the remains of five bodies of Bilkis’ relatives exhumed from a mass grave in Dahod.

With the DNA isolated, scientists will be able to establish the identity, age and sex of the dead. Officials said the forensic team would submit its final findings to the CBI in a month’s time.

The Bilkis case — she was five months pregnant when she was gang raped in March 2002 — was highlighted by The Indian Express and the Supreme Court ordered the CBI to probe the case after Gujarat Police closed the file.

Top forensic experts spent a week in Dahod and carried to Delhi the DNA samples of Bilkis and members of her surviving family. These samples are now being matched with the DNA samples isolated by the team.

Officials said the Bilkis case was a challenge for forensics given the fact that the remains were in a highly decomposed state and had been exhumed almost two years after the bodies were buried by the Gujarat Police in a riverine pit. Water had seeped into the bones and there was rapid decomposition after the Gujarat Police poured 60 kg of salt into the mass grave.

The Bilkis case is the first post-Godhra riot case in which investigations have been ordered by the Supreme Court.

Ritu Sarin

Ritu Sarin is Executive Editor (News and Investigations) at The Indian Express group. Her areas of specialisation include internal security, money laundering and corruption. Sarin is one of India’s most renowned reporters and has a career in journalism of over four decades. She is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) since 1999 and since early 2023, a member of its Board of Directors. She has also been a founder member of the ICIJ Network Committee (INC). She has, to begin with, alone, and later led teams which have worked on ICIJ’s Offshore Leaks, Swiss Leaks, the Pulitzer Prize winning Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Implant Files, Fincen Files, Pandora Papers, the Uber Files and Deforestation Inc. She has conducted investigative journalism workshops and addressed investigative journalism conferences with a specialisation on collaborative journalism in several countries. ... Read More