UNNAO: A two-member committee has been constituted to probe the recovery of around 100 skeletons from a room in the local police lines and a team of forensic experts from Lucknow has been sent to the spot.
The recovery of around 100 skeletons from the local police lines' room sent the Uttar Pradesh police into tizzy as the matter came to light barely a fortnight after as many bodies were found from the river Ganges here.
"A two-member committee comprising an official from the district administration and a police officer has been set up to go into the matter," District Magistrate, Unnao, Soumya Agarwal said today.
Besides, a team of forensic experts from Lucknow has been rushed to the spot.
DGP A K Gupta has asked DIG Police (Lucknow range) R K Chaturvedi to probe the matter on specific points and get back to him at the earliest.
"We will take immediate action on the basis of the report," IG (Law and Order) A Satish Ganesh said.
"We have also sought a report from Superintendent of Police, Unnao," he said, adding that things will be clear only after Unnao SP sends his report.
Ganesh said that according to local authorities, the room was used for conducting postmortem examination before 2008 and there was a register in which the record of bodies was maintained.
A verification of records has been ordered, he said.
Chief Medical Officer, Unnao, Geeta Singh said records were being examined to solve the mystery. The room was meant for storing viscera samples and other human remains like unidentified mutilated bodies which were sent for postmortem and had to be preserved for further action on the basis of court orders, an official said.
Forensic expert Ashutosh, who rushed in here from Lucknow, said nothing could be commented before the test was complete.
Proper probe and DNA testing would be done to corroborate the facts, he said.
The skeletons were kept in 22-25 sacks scattered all around in the locked room of the Reserve Police Lines, located opposite the police quarters and Mahila police station.
The matter came to light when some painters were working inside the Reserve Police Lines premises, when they curiously peeped into the room through an open window and saw human remains piled up in huge number. They immediately alerted the police, who rushed there.
No one initially dared to enter the room that emanated unbearable stench. It was only with the help of some class IV civic employees arranged by the Unnao police that investigators entered the room and the remains were taken away to the district hospital mortuary.
Local police believe that the heap of bones and skulls in the room could be the body parts that were used for crime investigation and left in that room, which was once the store of a police hospital but has been lying unused and has been locked up for years.
The bodies were never cremated after post mortem and kept lying there, a police officer said, adding why they were left in the room and not disposed of properly, will now be investigated.
Shocking visuals of the skeletons went viral in the media as the matter came to the fore hardly within a fortnight of recovery of 104 bodies near Pariyar ghat in Safipur in the district.
The decaying remains were perhaps of those who were given river burials upstream and the bodies seemed to have accumulated over months, police said.
The matter soon acquired a political hue with parties reacting on the issue.
"First bodies were recovered from Ganga and now skeletons have been found in police lines. The state government, which has no answer, is giving into baseless statement," BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak alleged.
He said that it is insensitive on the part of the government.
"The government must clarify how such a thing happened. It should ensure that such incidents do not occur in future," Congress leader Akhilesh Pratap Singh said.