May 21: Based on their conviction that gold has to pass through fire to prove its worth, five Nagaon-based clergymen have volunteered to undergo DNA tests to clear their names in a sex scandal that has brought the institution they serve in under a cloud.

The DNA profiling, if carried out, could catch as much attention as the highly-publicised incident involving former minister and AGP leader Rajendra Mushahary, who had to undergo a similar test after a girl claimed to have been raped by him and become pregnant. The test result confirmed that he was the father of the child born to the girl.

The Nagaon scandal came out of the bag in end-April, when a fourth-grade employee of Christ Jyoti School — a 24-year-old unmarried girl named Drina Timungpi — was found to be eight months pregnant.

As Drina used to work as a cook in the house where the clergymen stay, fingers were pointed at them. But Father Sebastian, administrator of the school, said the allegations were fabricated. “We are shocked at the misrepresentation of facts,” he told The Telegraph.

Father Sebastian said Drina had confessed to having an illicit relationship with Binu Kolta, a fourth-grade employee of the school. “Both of them confessed in writing, in the presence of a few local elders, that they had an illicit relationship,” he added.

However, the credibility of the school management has been questioned by some. It is alleged that Binu was traced to his village in the Majbat area of the district and “forced” to sign a “confessional statement”. He has since vanished without a trace.

Father Sebastian said Binu and Drina had agreed to live together and, accordingly, an agreement was drafted for the duo to sign in the presence of witnesses.

“But Binu vanished once again after signing the agreement. We did not file a case against him as the girl’s father pleaded that it would tarnish his daughter’s image and bring public shame to his family,” a school official said.

With all eyes trained on the five clergymen in whose house Drina used to work, they issued a joint statement recently and volunteered to undergo DNA tests. “We are here to serve the people of Nagaon and Assam and will continue to serve them. Those who are on the side of truth are bound to suffer. That will not prevent us from serving the people of Assam,” the statement said.

The school management claimed that it did not know about the “illicit affair” between Binu and Drina until the latter’s pregnancy came to light. “We did not suspect foul play even when Binu quit his job and went away in October 2002, just three months after joining the school,” the school official said.

If DNA tests are to be carried out, samples have to be sent either to the Central Laboratory in Calcutta or the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnosis in Hyderabad.

Nagaon deputy commissioner Prateek Hazela said the administration could not collect the samples required for tests because an FIR was yet to be filed.