As a result, the official death toll of 2002 riots will go up from 952 to 1,180, as 228 people, who are missing, will be presumed dead.

As per law, any person, who has been missing for seven years, is declared dead after the stipulated period lapses.

“We have prepared a list of missing people and sent it to the Revenue Department, which will declare them dead,” said Balwant Singh, Additional Chief Secretary(Home).

The state Revenue Department would send details to the district collectorates for the subsequent process.

Meanwhile, Ahmedabad District Collector Harit Shukla said the final list of missing persons is awaited from the police.

“Once we have the list, we will start the process of declaring them dead, inform the civic authorities to prepare their death certificates, and subsequently, compensation claims will be processed,” Shukla added.

In the aftermath of the communal carnage, a total of 413 people had disappeared of which 185 people were found. The 228 missing people also include 24 children and 27 women.

“As per legal procedure, we will have to revise the final figure of 2002 riots as missing persons are presumed dead after seven years,” a senior official said.

He said the process in this regard has been initiated already and will be completed by the first week of March, as most of the people had gone missing between February 27, 2002 and March 5, the same year.

Ahmedabad city has the highest number of missing persons (99), followed by Panchamahals (76), Dahod (17), Ahmedabad district (9), Sabarkantha (9), Baroda (15), Anand (two) and Surat (one).

Families of those who are missing would be able to claim full compensation as paid to those who died during the riots, officials said.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is probing some of the cases afresh, has already revised the death toll of Naroda Patia and Naroda Gam massacres.