CID to probe Nandigram graves

KOLKATA: The West Bengal government on Thursday ordered a CID inquiry into the identities of the persons whose charred bones and portions of skull were exhumed from five crudely-dug graves at Bamanchak near Nandigram.

"The CID has been asked to inquire into the matter," Home Secretary Prasad Ranjan Ray told newsmen here.

Stating that DNA tests would be conducted to ascertain the identities of those whose remains had been found, he said that the bone samples would be sent to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory for examination.

For identification purpose, the DNA from the bones would be matched with those of near relatives of those claimed to have been killed in Khejuri, Ray said.

Yesterday, East Midnapore superintendent of police Satyeswar Panda said that the bones could be of the five killed while making bombs on October 28, or those who had died on March 14, or in violence on November eight during the recapture of Nandigram.

Zilla Sabadhipati Niranjan Sihi had claimed that the bodies were of party supporters from Gokulnagar and Belda, who were killed in a bomb attack allegedly by Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee supporters on October 28.

Sihi claimed that the bodies were those of Bachchan Gurudas, Sunil Bar, Gourlaya Das, Simanata Das from Gokulnagar and Govinda Singh from Belda.