PATNA, India
(Reuters)
Eighty-eight human skulls are found in a bag
abandoned at a railway station ticketing office in eastern
India, a railway police official said Monday.
"There are both children's' and adult skulls. Forensic tests
will reveal the sex and age of the skulls," Ashish Ranjan Sinha,
inspector general of police, railways, told Reuters.
The abandoned blue air bag was spotted by railway staff Sunday
at Patna junction in the eastern state of Bihar and handed over
to the railway police who opened it to discover the neatly cut
bowl-like skulls.
Sinha said the bag was probably being taken by somebody on a
train from New Delhi to Guwahati in the eastern Indian state of
Assam.
Police are mystified by the abandoned bag of skulls but are
examining every possibility from murder to illegal skull
smuggling despite a federal government ban.
Bihar's Director General of Police K.A. Jacob suspects the
skulls were being taken for medical studies, adding that an
inquiry had been ordered.
In the mid-eighties, state capital Patna was the center of
smuggling of human skulls. At that time, India exported human
skulls and skeletons to more than 23 countries.
But police have not ruled out the possibility of murder. "We are
trying to ascertain the murder theory," Sinha said.
