27 human skulls retrieved in Puri

Bhubaneswar/Cuttack: A team of doctors in the Forensic Medicine and Toxicology department of SCB Medical College and Hospital (SCBMCH) here today established that all the 27 skulls recovered by the Puri police are human skulls.

Ruling out earlier claims that some of the recovered skulls are replicas, the team of doctors after examining each of them individually has confirmed that they are human skulls, SCBMCH administrative officer B N Moharana said.

"The doctors are now going to conduct different tests on the skulls to ascertain the gender and age of each one," Moharana said adding that subsequently they would be examined to find out whether the skulls have received any harms, if so, whether after death or before.

The report on the skulls would be submitted to the police within two weeks.

The police had earlier on Sunday recovered the skulls from an isolated room of the Siddha Mahavir Patna Ashram of Puri owned by an engineer. The engineer Manoranjan Jena alias Manu Bhai alias Manu Baba claims that he had kept the skulls to run a motivational centre.

Jena who was detained by the police for a brief period for questioning, claimed to be an engineer working with ONGC in Mumbai.

The skulls were found lined up on the shelves of Jena's locals suspected that they were used in sorcery. But the police said nothing was found in the room, which pointed to sorcery.

"It is a motivational centre and I have kept these skulls since the past nine years. I have even uploaded pictures and information about this in the Internet. It is part of my efforts to rid people of their fear of skeletons or ghosts. If it is punishable under law, then I respect the law and will accept the punishment," Jena told reporters.

However, he did not say from where he procured those skulls. Police has suo motu registered a case and Jena was released on a PR bond on Sunday.