Mass rape & murder: Exhumed in Gujarat, remains come to Delhi

Bilkis, five months pregnant in March 2002, was raped and saw eight of her relatives, among 14, raped and killed. Her plight was highlighted by The Indian Express and her case re-opened and handed to the CBI at the instance of the Supreme Court.

AIIMS experts today conducted an inventory of the material brought back from the riverine pit in Dahod, which they describe as a ‘‘mass grave.’’ From tomorrow, X-ray and other experiments will begin to determine the age, sex and finally the identity of the skeletons.

T D Dogra, head of the AIIMS Forensic Department, who stayed in Dahod for a week with a team of six other scientists, said for his department, this was perhaps the most challenging assignment ever. ‘‘It is the first time that such evidence has been exhumed from a mass grave and that too almost two years after the killings. It may take months for the final DNA tests but in a few days we will have some idea of what we have here. This is a laborious and unprecedented forensic investigation.’’

Officials of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) who led the team of investigators in Dahod say that the decision to carry the exhibits to Delhi was taken in view of the superior scientific equipment at AIIMS. They say that while several bones of the victims are intact, no skulls were recovered—probabaly swept away in the rivulet above which the grave was dug and the bodies dumped.

Besides the CBI and the AIIMS team, a high-level team of the Central Forensic Sceince Laboratory (CFSL) had also visited Dahod and these scientists will be performing other chemical tests on the exhibits.

Parallel to the forensics, a CBI team is camping in Dahod questioning suspects and police officials.