Muzaffarpur District Magistrate Alok Ranjan Ghosh said he had asked Health Department officials to investigate the recovery and submit a report to him. "A team has already visited the site of the recovery. It will submit a report soon," said Ghosh.

A senior District Health official said there were reports in past that unclaimed bodies were not cremated after post-mortem and thrown in the bushes near the hospital. "Recovery of parts of human skeleton may be connected to that."

However, Ahiyapur police station in-charge Sona Prasad Singh said he would be able to comment in the case only after a police investigation. "This is a matter of how and why unclaimed bodies were not cremated or were left half cremated," he said.