Mr Kelly killed himself 14 years ago after being identified as the source for a BBC story which claimed that a report on whether Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction had been “sexed up” by Tony Blair’s Labour government.
He was buried at St Mary’s Church in Longworth, Oxforshire, near where Mr Kelly had lived with his wife Janice and three daughters.
A group called Justice For Kelly, headed by local garage owner Gerrard Jonas, had placed a placard by his grave calling for an inquest.
Related articles
I am baffled as to the circumstances surrounding the exhumation
However his widow Janice felt the protest amounted to desecration and sought the exhumation, last July.
An inquest into Dr Kelly was suspended before the Hutton Inquiry, which looked into his death an concluded he killed himself – the inquest was then abandoned.
A group of doctors led a campaign to resume the inquest, and Michael Powers QC was the barrister instructed to represent them.
He said: “I am baffled as to the circumstances surrounding the exhumation.
“It could be said that his grave provided a focus for those wishing to draw visual attention to their campaign.
“On the other hand the secretive removal of his remains might have a more sinister connotation. The ‘conspiracy theorists’ can only be fuelled by this development.”