Surging floodwaters force CBI to abandon exhumation attempt

The CBI bid to exhume the bodies of two teenage sisters in Badaun had to be aborted on Saturday due to the sudden rise in the water level of river Ganga and the graves getting inundated, raising doubts about the success of the exercise.

A decision to exhume the bodies was taken about a week back but the delay in action has brought the situation to such a pass.

Now, it is feared that the bodies might get washed away in the swift tide of the river, the water of which is rising continuously due to rains.

However, the CBI personnel have contacted the UP Bridge Construction Cor poration to provide necessary equipments to reach the submerged graves. The girls were gang raped and murdered in Katra Sadatganj village of Badaun district in May this year.

CBI officials said efforts were on to protect the bodies and, therefore, sandbags had been placed around the graves. A team of irrigation department and cops has been deployed at the spot to keep a watch on the

IT IS FEARED THAT THE BODIES MIGHT GET WASHED AWAY IN THE SWIFT TIDE OF THE RIVER

graves.

The CBI team probing the case arrived in Badaun in the morning along with a threemember medical board team to carry out fresh autopsy after exhuming the bodies.

The team set up a temporary camp on the bank of Ganga and started the exercise to exhume the bodies.

However, suddenly the water level of the river started increasing and the graves got inundated. A pump set was then used to clear the water but due to snag in the pump, the exercise was stopped. District administration officers were told to get another pump set. But by the time the second pump was brought the graves were submerged under six feet water. There was no option but to call off the exercise, a district administration officer said.The CBI had decided to go for another autopsy after detecting anomalies in the postmortem done by local doctors earlier.

Irrigation department chief engineer DK Jain said: “Due to heavy rainfall in Uttarakhand and in the foothills of the Himalayas the water level of the Ganga was likely to increase further in the night. Sandbags have been placed around the grave to protect it from the rising water water.”

CBI’s PRO Kanchan Prasad said the exercise to exhume the bodies was called off due to rise in water level of the river. Members of the medical board as well as CBI team was camping in Badaun and a decision to resume the exercise would be taken on Sunday, she said.