SRINGAR: All is set for the exhumation of the bodies of the two Shopian rape and murder victims by India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The judicial and administrative requirements for the exhumation of the bodies have been completed and the exhumation is slated for Sunday.

The agency took over the investigation of the volatile case in the middle of this month after the special investigation team of the state police failed to crack the case.

The CBI, which initially expressed reluctance to take over the case, was given the charge by the Indian government as the delay in reaching the culprits was breeding discontent in the valley and dismay with the eight-month-old Omar Abdullah-led National Conference Congress coalition government.

The exhumation has been necessitated to gather fresh forensic evidence after forensic samples collected by investigators were reportedly lost.

The district magistrate Shopian, Abdul Majid Khanday, who cleared the exhumation of the bodies on Friday, told Arab News that the district administration would “provide the needed logistic support to the CBI for the exhumation process.”

The fresh autopsy and collection of forensic samples will be conducted by a team of experts from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) in New Delhi, which functions under the supervision of the CBI.

The special director CBI, S. C. Sinha is to oversee the autopsy this time by a team of CFSL.

A 12-member team of the CBI headed by deputy inspector general, S. K. Golcha is investigating the case. Bodies of 17-year-old Asiya Jan and her 22-year-old sister-in-law Neelofar Jan were found by a village stream in the wee hours of May 30, hours after they went missing from a family orchard in the south Kashmir Shopian town.

The CBI investigation team has already visited the site of the crime and held meetings with the members of the SIT and family of the two victims.

The rape and murder case has emerged as a daunting challenge for the young chief minister, Omar Abdullah who took office early January and the case has been gnawing at his credibility as the government committed series of blunders while handling the case.

In his first response to the heinous crime, the chief minister tried to pass off the incident of rape and murder as a case of death by drowning.