After surveying the site and interacting with the petitioners and trustees of Qabrastan, Justice S B Mhase and Justice V K Tahilramani directed the collector to file a report stating procedure followed by trustees with regard to maintenance of records. The collector was also asked to file a report on the procedures followed in respect of burial of unclaimed bodies.

According to the petition filed by Mohammed Sankey and Mohammed Falke, members of Juma Masjid, in the High Court, they had on December 22 last year noticed a body lying near an open grave, but failed to get any response from the trustees of the graveyard when they took up the issue with them. The body was later given a hasty burial on December 26 by dragging it and without giving a bath, kafan or Janaje ki Namaz, the petition said.

According to the petitioners, they first lodged an objection with the trustees, and when there was no response, they filed a complaint with the police on January 15. However, no appropriate action was taken by the authorities, the petition claimed.

The petitioners urged the court to direct proceedings against those responsible for the incident.

According to the petition, the statements of the trustees and petitioners were recorded by the L T Marg police station. “Statement of the trustees has increased the suspicion on the entire episode,” the petition said, adding that necessary interrogation of the trustees and employees of the graveyard would “definitely reveal something.”

However, an affidavit filed by Senior Police Inspector Anil Naik of the L T Marg police station had stated that the petitioners failed to pinpoint the exact grave and denied that authorities were pressurizing the petitioners to withdraw the petition. The affidavit also stated that the trustees have denied the incident during a meeting with the Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) K L Prasad.

On Tuesday, the judges arrived at 3.30 pm following which the petitioners showed the place where they saw the body first. Later the judges along with the Police Commissioner and the Collector were shown some bones in a dug up pit on one part of the graveyard.

“We showed the judges the site where the body was found and also the pit where the bones could be seen,” said petitioner’s lawyer R J Singh.