In a new twist to the Shopian case, forensic scientists have found that one of the two victims was a virgin, thereby ruling out the possibility of a rape.
Forensic scientists from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, who accompanied the Central Bureau of Investigation's team, have found during autopsy of the exhumed bodies that the hymen of 17-year-old Aasiya Jan was intact, official sources said on Tuesday.
The forensic experts have shown the intact hymen to doctors of Mushawarat Majlis-e-Committee, the group which spearheaded the 47-day agitation against the alleged rape and murder of the two women by security personnel, who were present at the site.
A special CBI forensic team on Monday collected samples from the bodies of the two women after exhuming them nearly four months after the incident.
The team, comprising senior doctor from AIIMS, collected a number of samples from the bodies in a process that started at 7 am and continued for nine hours.
They conducted the autopsy after obtaining necessary approval of the families of the victims -- 22-year-old Neelofar and her sister-in-law Aasiya.