DNA test confirms 2020 fire victim wasa man; murder case registered

Shahjahanpur: A DNA report received nearly five years after a fatal blaze has turned a closed fire investigation into a murder probe. Police here have booked three people for murder after scientific testing confirmed that charred remains -- originally dismissed by the police as animal remains -- were those of an 18-year-old man. The remains were recovered on the morning of December 20, 2020, from a shop in the Roza area where a fire had broken out the previous night.

At the time, police treated the remains as animal carcasses and disposed of them in a sack. However, a veterinary officer later examined the remains and confirmed they were human, prompting a post-mortem examination. Police also recovered a metal bracelet and pieces of a belt from the spot.