A policeman checks the toilet at Patna Junction where Enul was injured on October 27. File picture

Patna/Ranchi, Nov. 4: The last rites of 25-year-old suspected Indian Mujahideen operative Tarique, alias Enul, were performed today with none of his Ranchi-based family members coming to the fore to claim his body.

Enul, who was a resident of Sithio village on the outskirts of Ranchi, died on November 1 in the early hours — 1.10am — at Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS), succumbing to injuries he sustained in his head when a bomb he was carrying suddenly went off at a public lavatory on Karbigahiya end of Patna Junction on October 27 during BJP’s Hunkar Rally.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Ram Pukar Singh, the station house officer (SHO) of Government Railway Police, Patna, said repeated reminders had been sent to Enul’s family but none of his relatives turned up.

“Enul succumbed to his injuries on November 1. Since then, we have been trying to contact his family members. An officer was sent to Ranchi and his family was duly informed right from the time he was injured and was admitted to the hospital. Notices were sent and his family members received it too. In addition to this, the Patna police duly informed the family about his critical condition and later about his death via Ranchi superintendent of police,” Singh said.

He added: “Today morning, his relatives were informed again that his last rites were being performed and that the family could come down and receive the body. According to the rulebook, a body is kept for 72 hours and is cremated by the police if no one claims the deceased. But none from his family contacted the Patna police or even came to us. The body was handed over to Anjuman Islamia organisation, which has its office at the Jama Masjid near the Patna Junction. He was buried at the ground near Uma cinema. There was none to claim the body.”

“The man was under life support. One part of his brains was oozing out after the bomb he was carrying had exploded,” another police officer said.

With Enul’s death, the toll in the blasts now stands at seven.

On a day the unclaimed body of Enul was buried by Bihar police, an elderly Sithio resident who had accepted in writing last week that he was the youth’s father, reasoned why he backed out of his earlier statement.

Md Ataullah, a retired HEC employee-turned-farmer, said today that he wanted “photographic or bodily proof” that the dead youth, Enul, was in fact his youngest son.

Ataullah’s declaration came on a day when IG Patna Sushil M. Khopde confirmed Tarique’s body was buried in the afternoon.

Dhurwa officer-in-charge B.N. Singh confirmed that the police were within their rights to do so.

“According to law, the police wait for relatives of the deceased for 72 hours after official notification of death. In case no relative claims the body, the police are expected to dispose of the body according to the deceased’s religion,” the Dhurwa OC said.