A woman whose father was reported missing on March 14 had to wait for a DNA test to find out that a decomposed body lying in the morgue for two months was that of her father.
A decomposed body was found floating in the Hooghly under the West Port area on March 20. Saheli Banerjee, whose father — a retired assistant commissioner of Kolkata Police — went missing from a ghat in north Calcutta a week earlier, went to identify the body but failed as the body was highly decomposed.
A DNA test was conducted using a molar tooth from the body. Two months later, after the DNA report arrived, it confirmed the body to be that of the father of the woman, thereby establishing the identity of the deceased as retired assistant commissioner Labanya Chakraborty.
The body was handed over to the family on Wednesday.
Chakraborty, 81, was an officer of the non-investigating cadre of Kolkata Police and had served in several important posts like officer-in-charge and then assistant commissioner of the Lalbazar control room.
Several officers of the force who are also retired now, recalled Chakraborty as a “soft-spoken” person and “good at heart”.
On the night of March 20, officers of the river traffic police found a “highly decomposed” body of a man in the Hooghly near the Sarenga Jetty Ghat. The body was brought to Baje Kadamtala Ghat and then taken to Calcutta Medical College and Hospital, where the person was formally declared dead, the police said.
The body of the unidentified person was kept in the morgue and the information
was shared with all police stations.
Saheli, a resident of the Rabindra Sarobar police station area, whose father had gone missing from a ghat in Shyampukur a week ago, contacted the police.
Her father went for a dip in the Hooghly on March 14, but never returned. His bag and slippers were found on the ghat.
Saheli failed to identify the body as the face was decomposed beyond recognition.
“It was an emotional call. The location of the body, the circumstances, everything matched. But there was no concrete proof. She agreed to a DNA test,” the officer of the Port division said.
A molar tooth was extracted from the body and sent for DNA profiling at the State Forensic Laboratory in Belgachia.
The report came earlier this week and confirmed the father-daughter relationship.
Chakraborty’s body was handed over to the family on Wednesday, the police said.