Patna: Closure still eludes the relatives of those from Bihar who were among the 39 Indians murdered in Iraq by ISIS. Neither have they received any money from the government, nor have they got the bodies of their loved ones.

Except for one person, the DNA of the five other victims from Bihar has been matched. The Indians were abducted in June 2014 and till recently the external affairs ministry had not conceded that they had been killed.

"I've been told it will take another week for the body to arrive," Asland Vikram, brother of Santosh Kumar Singh, one of the Indians slain in Mosul, Iraq, said on Wednesday. "The body is still lying in Mosul. As for compensation, we are yet to receive a single paisa."

The state government's compensation of Rs 5 lakh to each family is delayed because the government claims it is still awaiting a report from the Siwan district magistrate.

Congress MLA Vijay Shankar Dubey had sought to raise the matter in the Assembly through a call attention motion on Wednesday. It could not be debated because the House was adjourned.

"The compensation the state government is seeking to give is a pittance," said Dubey. "The Punjab government has been paying Rs 20,000 per month to each family from the day they were abducted in 2014. Here, the government is seeking to give Rs 5 lakh under the scheme for migrant labourers."

He pointed out how, more recently, when three Biharis were killed in Bangalore, the Karnataka government showed more compassion than Bihar by ensuring that their bodies reached their village and paid Rs 5 lakh to each family swiftly.

In May 2015, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj had written a letter to chief minister Nitish Kumar (a copy of which is with The Telegraph) saying that family members of Bidya Bhushan Tiwari and Santosh Kumar Singh (two of those abducted) had met her and told her of the economic hardships the families were facing. Swaraj had requested Nitish to follow the example of Punjab, which was giving Rs 20,000 each to families of the abducted per month. Her ministry sent another letter with the same request to Bihar chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh.

A letter written by labour commissioner Gopal Meena on March 23 asked the Siwan district magistrate to send a report on the families of those killed so that compensation can be given.

"A labour department official recently came and took away documents, but we have not heard anything since," said Vikram.