Eleven “highly decomposed” bodies, including of a woman, and four human skulls were recovered on Sunday from the Bhakra canal here in Haryana during its annual maintenance, police said.
The bodies were recovered near the Narwana and Garhi areas of the canal, which enters Haryana from Punjab. While eight bodies were recovered from Narwana, three bodies and four skulls were found from Garhi, police said.
“Eight bodies were recovered from the canal near Dhakal village in Narwana,” a police official of the Sadar Police Station, Narwana, said. A DNA test could be carried out for their identification, said the official.
“The canal was shut down for annual maintenance and the water level was down substantially,” Jind’s Superintendent of Police, Shashank Anand, said.
He said that one body had been identified and the deceased was from Patiala. The Punjab police had been informed, he said.
Case registered
A case has been registered under relevant provisions of the law, a Narwana police official said, adding that the possibility of finding more bodies from the canal cannot be ruled out.
“We have kept the bodies for identification at the government hospital in Narwana and are in touch with our counterparts in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh,” the police official said.
