The curious case of confusion over corpses’ gender in Sirajganj

In October 2019, Sirajganj police from Jamuna river recovered the decomposed body of a man, wearing lungi and panjabi.

Police sent the body to Bangamata Sheikh Fazilatunnessa Mujib General Hospital in the district for autopsy where DNA samples were collected. 

The samples collected by the hospital staffers were later sent to forensic lab of Criminal Investigation department for DNA analysis.

The CID report says the victim is a female. The results were the same despite repeated DNA analysis.

The identification of the body still remains uncertain due to, what police allege, improper collection of the samples.  

Interestingly, this is not a one-off incident in Sirajganj. Four to five such conflicting DNA reports came due to collecting samples incorrectly in the last one year, Hasibul Alom, superintendent of Sirajganj police, told The Daily Star.

Dipak Kumar Ghosh, officer-in-charge of Ullapara police station said they recovered a decomposed body from Sarbil area on July 11, last year.

Seeing the clothes and other external evidences, the body seemed to be that of a male.

DNA samples were collected from the body. A woman named Selina Khatun claimed the body was her husband's.

But the results of DNA analysis said the deceased was a female.

Police later went to hospital authorities who claimed preserved samples of the body were already damaged. The law enforcers then had the samples collected again after exhuming the body from the grave upon court's permission and is waiting for the report.

Similarly, Belkuchi police recovered the body of a young girl on July 1 last year. Hospital staffers collected samples which were later sent to forensic lab. The result shows that the victim is a male.

Police later exhumed the body, collected samples and sent them to lab again.

Talking to The Daily Star, the SP said, police investigation are being hampered due to wrong DNA reports, all because of the negligence of the hospital authority.

"When police recovered the unidentified corpse, we asked the hospital authority for samples -- for DNA test -- to identify the body. Due to negligence of hospital staffers, identities of some victims are yet to be confirmed," he said.

Dr Md Saiful Islam, superintendent of Bangamata Sheikh Fazilatunnessa Mujib General Hospital, said they do not have any specialist morgue assistant to handle the bodies and collect the samples.

"An untrained staffer of the hospital is working in the morgue for handling the body so mistake in collecting samples is causing the problem," he told our local correspondent.

The doctor said they have ordered to collect samples from victim's body in presence of hospital authority so that such mistakes don't recur.