15 Years After Tripura Teacher Vanished, Bodies Dug Up In Assam For DNA Test

In a development that appears straight out of a crime thriller, three unidentified bodies buried nearly 15 years ago in Assam's Sribhumi district were exhumed on Wednesday for DNA profiling as part of the probe into the disappearance of a Tripura school teacher in 2011.

The exhumation was carried out at a government cemetery in Sribhumi following an order from a district court in Tripura. A team from Tripura Police, officials of the Sribhumi district administration and family members of the missing teacher were present during the process.

As directed by the court, bone samples were collected from the remains and will be sent to a forensic laboratory for DNA testing. The samples will be matched with DNA collected from the teacher's family members in Agartala.

The missing teacher, Ashish Som, was a resident of Agartala and was around 40 years old when he disappeared in May 2011.

According to police sources, Som left home for work one day but never returned. His family later allegedly received phone calls from people claiming to have kidnapped him.

The alleged kidnappers demanded ransom, and the family paid around Rs 25 lakh on different occasions. However, Som did not return even after the money was paid, and for years there was no information about his whereabouts.

The family later approached the court seeking further investigation into the case.

Investigators suspect that Som may have been killed and that his remains could be among unidentified bodies recovered around the same period in Assam.

Police said one unidentified body was recovered from the Son Beel area of Sribhumi district around the time of Som's disappearance in 2011 and was buried after legal formalities were completed.

Officials later found reports indicating that three unidentified bodies had been buried in the area during that period. Since investigators could not determine which of the three graves might contain Som's remains, all three were exhumed for forensic sampling.

Assam Police officials said they assisted with the process following the court's order.

The DNA samples collected from the exhumed remains will now be examined and compared with those of Som's family members.