Ranchi: Jharkhand high court on Friday directed the state govt to inform at which hospital DNA samples of the parents of a 18-year-old Bokaro girl, whose skeleton was recovered by police last month, will be collected.A division bench of Justices Sujit Narayan Prasad and Sanjay Prasad gave the direction while hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by the mother of the victim. The court was informed that the Military Hospital in Namkum, Ranchi, is not equipped to collect DNA samples for further analysis.The court was informed by the Union govt counsel that the DNA samples can be collected at the Military Hospital in Ramgarh, CCL Hospital and Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (Rims), both in Ranchi, and hospitals in Kolkata. The case will be heard again on Monday.The high court had earlier directed that samples of the parents be collected at the Military Hospital in Namkum.Bokaro police had last month recovered a female skeleton from a jungle, claiming it to be that of the girl who went missing in July last year. Parents of the victim denied that the skeleton was that of their daughter. Subsequently, the court directed the govt to collect DNA samples of the parents to be matched with that of the skeleton.The court ordered the DNA samples should be matched at the forensic laboratory in Kolkata. The court also directed the govt to conduct the post-mortem examination of the skeleton at Rims.Rekha Devi, mother of the girl, had filed the petition before the HC earlier this year after police were not able to trace her daughter, who went missing on July 31 last year.The court had earlier hauled up the director general of police, Bokaro superintendent of police and officers of Pindrajora police station for alleged laxity in probe.
