Bhagalpur, Feb. 2: Munger police’s attempt to identify the four skeletons and five decomposed bodies recovered from Tarapur diara on January 30 has suffered a setback.

Doctors at Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital, Bhagalpur, yesterday turned down the request of the Munger police to conduct autopsy, as most of the bodies were past the stage where an autopsy could be conducted. The doctors said only expert examination is possible now.

The police suspect the skeletons and decomposed bodies belong to Naxalites killed by Bind gang members at Kashibaba Sthan diara under Bariarpur police station on November 29 last year.

“Munger police had sent remains of the bodies to the hospital on January 31 for autopsy to ascertain the identity of the victims,” said Dr A.K. Mallik, the head of department of forensic sciences and medicine. He told reporters yesterday: “Conducting autopsy is not possible as the two-month old bodies have lost most of the flesh.” He added only expert examination is possible now and that would also take at least four months to reach a conclusion.

The hospital authorities also did not receive the skeletons and bodies on record and instead, stored them in the air-conditioned autopsy room on the campus.

Experts at the hospital said the police did not follow the correct procedure while sending the skeletons and bodies to the hospital. “They sent the remains as if they were sending bodies for autopsy. According to the procedure of expert examination, they should have send the skeletons in separated wooden coffins,” said one of the experts. The expert added: “This is not a case of simple autopsy and expert examination can be conducted only after permission from the court concerned.”

Inspector-general of police, Bhagalpur range, A.K. Ambedkar, who visited Munger today, refused to comment on the possibility of any delay in obtaining the laboratory reports from the hospital. However, an officer at Munger said: “How can the police prove the recovered skeletons and bodies belong to Reds?”

Circumstantial evidence has already established that the persons ambushed by the Bind gangsters were all Naxalites. DNA tests can only establish the identity of the deceased persons. But for that, we need the DNA of the victims’ family members too, which is impossible,” said the officer.

Meanwhile, the Munger police raided different diara localities on January 31 and arrested Bijoy Singh and Ashok Singh of Raita diara and Charittar Bind and Kamaleswari Singh of Lakshmipur diara in connection with the November 29 ambush. They were produced in the local court on February 1 after being sent to judicial custody in Munger jail.