Patna, Nov 26 (IANS): In a bizarre incident, miscreants have dug out five bodies from a graveyard in Bihar’s Purnea district, police said Wednesday.

Purnea superintendent of police Ajit Kumar Satyarthi said: "After this incident was brought to our notice, police have begun investigating it."

Indigent hindus bury their kin in the graveyard near Kasba block instead of cremating them. It is a rare practice for years in Purnea, about 350 km from here.

Maratu Sada, a local resident, said: "We are shocked after discovering that five graves were dug up and bodies missing from the graveyard in the last few days."

Sada said the graveyard was used by Dalits and other poor people who could not afford costly cremation.

Police officials suspect an organised gang of smugglers was behind the disappearance of bodies.

"Smugglers are using the bones of bodies for making money as they supply them in neighbouring Nepal and West Bengal for research purpose," a police officer said.