COURTESY BBC HINDI
The daughter of a British businessman thought to have been murdered in India says the body Punjab police have sent to the UK is not her father’s, British media reported on Wednesday.
Hotel owner Ranjit Singh Power, from Wolver hampton, 54, was last seen at an airport in Amritsar, Punjab, on 8 May.
Taxi driver Sukhdev Singh was charged with his murder after police said he had confessed to killing Mr Power.
The hotelier’s daughter told BBC Hindi that dental records and DNA of the body did not match the family’s samples.
Mr Power’s body was found in a lake and was in poor condition. A family friend who identified the body in June had said it was the right height and wore “exactly the same bangle” as the businessman.
Senior Punjab police official Amrik Singh, who investigated the case, said they tested the DNA samples after recovering the body and sent it to London only after it was identified by Mr Power’s friend.
Police require the DNA sample of his mother to be able to match them, he said, adding that they had conveyed their request to the British embassy in Delhi and also to Mr Power’s family.
“The DNA of my grandmother has not been sent to India as requested, because we found out that the body was not my father’s so it was no longer necessary,” Ms Power told BBC Hindi.
“We believe the body that was brought to the UK is now the responsibility of the coroner in the UK,” she added.
