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Dr Balbir Kaur, head of the department of forensic science in the Government Medical College (GMC), Srinagar, who was suspended in the DNA samples tampering case, defended her department's role in the incident.
"We had only collected the samples and handed them over to the investigating officer after sealing them. We had nothing to do with the fudging," Dr Kaur said.
The saga began when security forces claimed that they had gunned down five militants, in Pathribal in Anantnag district, involved in the killing of 35 Sikhs in Chattisinghpora in the same district.
However, protests followed with some people claiming that the slain persons were their relatives, not militants. They pointed out that Zahoor Dalal, Juma Khan, Bashir Ahmad Bhat, Juma Khan and Mohammad Yousuf Malik went missing exactly a day after the Chattisinghpora massacre.
They forced the government to institute a probe into the Pathribal incident.
It was decided to compare the DNA samples of the dead persons with the relatives of those missing and verify the claims and counter-claims.
However, when newspaper reports recently revealed that the samples had been tampered with, an embarrassed Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah ordered an inquiry.
Fresh samples were collected by doctors at the GMC in the presence of the Jammu range police chief P L Gupta, Anantnag district police chief and other officers.
Two senior officials of the state police are to transport the samples to Kolkata and Hyderabad for the DNA tests.
Zahoor Dalal's mother Raja Bano and Juma Khan's sister Rafiqa are willing to give any number of DNA samples if it would unveil the truth behind the Pathribal killings.
Both of them have no knowledge about DNA tests or how it can help the probe. All the same, they travelled to Srinagar once again on Friday to offer fresh samples hoping they won't be tampered with.
"I will give more blood, any number of times. I only want justice," says Bano.
However, she could not hide her scepticism about the outcome of both inquiries. "They are the judges, they are the investigators and they are the guilty," she pointed out.
"I saw the same people who had taken our samples two years ago at the hospital when we went to give fresh samples. Nothing has changed," she added.
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