Sirajganj police in October 2019 had recovered the decomposed body in Sadar thana area.

After an autopsy, DNA samples from the body that police had identified as being that of a man were sent to the CID forensic lab in Dhaka.

Results of DNA testing showed that the victim was a woman. Police are yet to identify the victim as they cannot make any progress in the investigation of the unnatural death case due to the incorrect test report.

Sirajganj police said they could not complete probes into four unnatural death cases in the last one year due to DNA reports which conflicted with the case statements.

Police blamed flaws in collection of DNA samples from the bodies by Sirajganj Bongamata Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib General Hospital for the errors in DNA reports.

Dipak Kumar Ghosh, officer-in charge of Ullapara Police Station, said police recovered a decomposed body from Sarbil area of Ullapara on July 11 last year. Examining the dress of the victim and other evidence, police found that the deceased was a man. Later, a woman named Selina Khatun claimed the body to be of her husband's.

However, DNA testing of samples from the victim's body showed that the dead was a female. Police then went back to the hospital to recollect DNA samples from its sample bank, but the hospital authorities claimed that those were damaged, the OC added.

Police later exhumed the victim's body with permission from a local court and collected DNA samples again for repeat testing. They are now awaiting results of the test.

In another incident, police recovered the body of a girl in Belkuchi upazila on July 1 last year and sent DNA samples to the CID forensic lab for testing. The test report shows that the dead was a boy. Due to the wrong DNA report, the identification of the body is yet to be confirmed.

Police later exhumed the victim's body, collected DNA samples from it and sent those to the forensic lab for retesting.

Speaking to The Daily Star, Hasibul Alam, superintendent of Sirajganj police, said their investigations were being hampered due to incorrect DNA test reports. He blamed the hospital authorities for this.

"Due to mistakes by hospital staffers, identification of victims is delayed," the SP said.

He said they have lodged a complaint with the hospital authorities in this regard.

The hospital authorities, however, claim wrong identification of samples causes the problem. They said they are now ensuring that DNA samples from bodies are collected in presence of an expert from the hospital.

"We have ordered our staffers to collect DNA samples in presence of an expert so that there is no mistake in the process," Dr Md Saiful Islam, superintendent of the hospital, told The Daily Star.