The bail application of Nadim Shaikh, an accused in the Raj Agarwal murder case, may well be a lesson in forensic tests.
The bail application of Nadim Shaikh, an accused in the Raj Agarwal murder case, may well be a lesson in forensic tests.
After inferring that DNA tests are admissible evidence before the court, the Bombay high court is now puzzled over the inferences drawn through the Y-STR tests conducted on the skeleton recovered by the police in the case.
Y- STRs are short tandem repeats found on the male-specific Y chromosome. In biological terms, the Y-STRs are polymorphic (having more than one adult form) among unrelated males and are inherited through the paternal line with little change through generations. They are often used to determine paternity.
“What is the significance of Y-STR?” the court asked on Tuesday.
Additional public prosecutor Usha Kejriwal told the court that the first DNA report stated that the skeleton recovered by the police in Daund village did not belong to the biological son of Raj’s parents. However, the Central Forensic Science Laboratory at Hyderabad also submitted a Y-STR test report that said that the skeleton’s Y-STR matched with that of Raj’s father and it also determined his family lineage to the Agarwal family.
The court was, however, curious to find out about the discrepancy in the two reports. “We want to satisfy ourselves,” justice Ranjana Desai said.
Nadim Shaikh and six others were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for kidnapping 14-year-old Raj Agarwal on November 18, 2003, for ransom and later murdering him. His captors had demanded Rs5 crore.
A body was found in Daund near Pune but Raj’s father Kunjbihari Agarwal had refused to claim the remains of his son stating that the skeleton recovered is not Raj’s.
Kejriwal also stated that there were braces on the skeleton which Raj wore and the T-shirt also was that of his school uniform. The court said that if not for the contentious test reports, the accused had a good case for bail, as three accused had already been granted bail by the court. Wanting Y-STR tests explained, the court has adjourned the case till March 10.
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