A DNA report received nearly five years after a fatal blaze has turned a closed fire investigation into a murder probe. Police here have booked three people for murder after scientific testing confirmed that charred remains — originally dismissed by the police as animal remains — were those of an 18-year-old man.

The remains were recovered on the morning of December 20, 2020, from a shop in the Roza area where a fire had broken out the previous night. At the time, police treated the remains as animal carcasses and disposed of them in a sack. However, a veterinary officer later examined the remains and confirmed they were human, prompting a post-mortem examination.