NOIDA (India), Jan 15: Federal detectives on Monday removed nine plastic bags filled with human bones found in a new search near a bungalow dubbed the “House of Horrors”, and admitted there may now be over 20 murder victims.

“It now looks (as though) the number of those killed may exceed 20,” a detective for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) told AFP in Noida.

The polythene bags were stashed in sewage drains that had not been searched previously, the CBI detective said on condition of anonymity.

Previously it had been confirmed at least 17 people, mostly children, were murdered in the past three years. Their remains were found last month.

“Today, we will search another drainage to the trunk (sewage) line here, the CBI detective said.

Excavators were being brought in for a second wave of searches around the house where the main suspects, a businessman and his domestic help, lived.

Noida police chief R.K.S. Rathore said he and his team had failed earlier to find the torsos or the bundles located on Sunday, as well as three skulls found on Saturday, due to “crowd trouble”. “We were distracted by crowd trouble but now things have calmed down a bit, said Rathore, who has been ordered to hand over the investigations to the CBI following national outrage.

The CBI, however, declined official comment.

“The investigations will take time. We have a policy of not making announcements before the probe is completed,” CBI spokesman G. Mohanty said.

—AFP