I never gave any false hope to anyone: Sushma Swaraj

Accusing the Congress of indulging in "cheap politics", External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today said she did not keep anyone in the dark over the killing of 39 Indians in captivity in Iraq or give the families "false hopes".

Defending herself against a barrage of criticism, the minister said she had kept her word that she would declare them dead if she gets conclusive proof.

Swaraj had said in a statement in the Rajya Sabha earlier in the day that 39 Indians, who were abducted by ISIS in Iraq about four years go, were killed and their bodies recovered from Mosul in Iraq.

As many as 40 Indians were abducted by the terrorist organisation in 2014 but one of them escaped by posing as a Muslim from Bangladesh, Swaraj said.

She added that the DNA samples of 38 people had been matched by the Iraqi authorities. In the case of the 39th person, the matching was 70 per cent.

The external affairs minister said two heads of states in that region had conveyed to India that the 39 Indians were not killed. She did not take any names.

Swaraj, who could not make a statement in the Lok Sabha because of an uproar from the Congress, addressed a press conference later in the day and said 27 of the 39 were from Punjab, six from Bihar, four from Himachal Pradesh and two from West Bengal.

In an indirect dig at the Congress, she said there were governments that would interpret missing persons as "believed to be killed".

Referring to criticism from some opposition members and families of the deceased who said they got to know about death of their loved ones through television, Swaraj said she followed parliamentary procedures.

"It was my duty to first inform the House about (it)," Swaraj said,