The search for Subhan Ali, a 27-year-old Border Roads Organisation officer posted in Kargil, just got longer. The Indian Engineering Services (IES) officer is believed to have fallen into the Dras river in June last year, a month before he was going to get married. While his driver’s body was found, his never was. Now, a fortnight after defence minister Rajnath Singh said the DNA tests to confirm his identity are “in queue,” his family says they are caught in a limbo — they have been “informally” told that the DNA samples have not matched but to get a death certificate, they’d have to wait over six years. And his salary dues remain stuck.
“He was going to get married in July. We were busy preparing. In fact, the wedding date had to be moved twice. He and I ran an IAS coaching centre for several years. He got into IIT (Delhi) and left that. He got a job with the DDA in Delhi in 2018 after that and, the following year, cleared the IES exam,” his brother Sahban told TOI.
After clearing the IES, Ali was posted as an assistant engineer with the 81 RCC, General Reserve Engineering Force (GREF), and was on duty when his car met with an accident on June 22. “The Army and Kargil officials had deployed excavators, a divers’ team, combat engineers and armed force specialist drivers who used heavy duty cranes to locate the vehicle. Then, helicopters were sent out. But the body could not be found in the fast-flowing Dras river,” an Army official told TOI.
Five days later, Pakistan alerted India that an unidentified body had been found near their side of the LoC. Indian authorities from Kargil then met their counterparts in Pakistan and collected DNA samples from the body, to be matched with Ali’s parents. Samples from his father, a tailor at Balrampur in Uttar Pradesh, and mother were taken in October.
After months of no progress, Amroha MP Danish Ali wrote to the defence ministry about the delay. In response, defence minister Rajnath Singh wrote on February 11, “The DNA samples (of the body in Pakistan) have been received by Kargil Police at Tangdhar on August 22, 2020. DNA samples of his parents were also collected in October 2020. It is learnt DNA matching analysis at FSL (Forensic Science Laboratory) in Chandigarh is in queue and it may have 3-6 months before report is finalised.”
His family said they have been unofficially told the samples did not match. “We have been told informally by the Kargil administration that the DNA samples did not match but calls to his seniors at BRO did not get much of a response. We have spent Rs 2-3 lakh on trips and search operations. I hope we get a final and respectful closure,” Sahban said.
Section 108 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 stipulates a seven-year period for which a person has to be missing before being presumed dead: “[Provided that when] the question is whether a man is alive or dead, and it is proved that he has not been heard of for seven years by those who would naturally have heard of him if he had been alive, the burden of proving that he is alive is [shifted to] the person who affirms it.”
In a letter to the Kargil administration on February 12, a copy of which is with TOI, Sahban sought assistance to get a death certificate for his brother. “Please provide us (with) … the death certificate required by the GREF (BRO) for the (financial) assistance, as there is enough evidence that my brother Subhan Ali was in the … Gypsy (that fell into the Dras). Kindly help us. We won’t be able to survive the pain,” he wrote.
A Kargil Police official said, “We are trying our best to help the family with the search and with the procedure to get their dues.” However, he added, the case could not be closed this soon because of the seven-year wait before a missing person can be “lawfully” declared dead.
