Russian cops discover bag with 54 severed fists

Moscow, March 10: Russian police found a bag filled with 54 severed human hands discarded near a river in the Siberian city of Khabarovsk.

Officials who earlier predicted that it was the task of a ‘maniac’ or an international gang are now saying that the hands belonged to unidentified bodies which were stored at a forensic laboratory.

Investigators have conjectured that the hands were retained for future identification purposes and to “preserve fingerprints,” the Daily Mail reported. Police who found the bag on a small island in the middle of a river called the disposal “inappropriate”.

Spokesman for the Russian Investigative Committee said officers are now ‘carrying out checks and studying all the circumstances of this event.’

Earlier, the Siberian Times reported that the hands may have belonged to corpses that had been “plundered for body parts” to cover up the identities of victims.

Yakuza, a transnational Japanese crime syndicate and Chinese mafia gangs were also suspected before officials confirmed otherwise. Social media went ablaze with shocked and appalled people trying to sniff out a ‘cover up.’

“So there is nothing criminal in the fact that hands were cut off from dead bodies for the purpose of taking fingerprints?” said one of many questioning state ethics and how the government treats “remains of Russian citizens.”

— Agencies

INVESTIGATORS have conjectured that the hands were retained for future identification purposes and to “preserve fingerprints”. Cops who found the bag on a small island in the middle of a river called the disposal “inappropriate”.