2 postmortems, 2 different results. Third to clear doubts | India News

CHANDIGARH: While Bhiwani police have categorised the death of a 19-year-old teacher as suicide, dismissing other possibilities, the first postmortem report (PMR) and police’s own records raise unsettling concerns.According to the first PMR, the deceased’s salwar was found “torn”. It also noted “signs of struggle”. When the body was handed over to Bhiwani Civil Hospital on August 13 for the first autopsy, the apparent cause of death mentioned in the Loharu police inquest report was described as “Galat Kaam Karke, Gala Retkar Hatya (murder by slitting of throat after committing wrongful acts)”.The second post-mortem had been conducted at PGIMS-Rohtak. Police had on Monday cited it to say she had died of pesticide poisoning while her neck wounds were possibly caused by animals rather than any sharp-edged weapon. PGIMS-Rohtak medical superintendent Dr Kundan Mittal had said, “We found poison in the samples sent to the lab. No semen traces were found. No acid was poured on the body, as had been initially claimed in media reports.“The first postmortem was conducted at the civil hospital at 6.25 pm on August 13 at the request of Loharu police. The PMR – a copy of which is with TOI – records that police informed doctors that their initial impression was that her throat had been cut after sexual assault.In another column, the PMR says, “The body was wearing a… yellow colour salwar found torn at the anterior superior aspect and ‘nada (string)’ found open intact in situ with struggle signs…”In the column on external injuries, only one has been mentioned – “a lacerated wound with gnawing effects on margins of size 29.5x16cm was present horizontally over the front and both sides of the neck remaining a tissue tag on the posterior aspect of neck (sic)… ” TOI spoke with a senior doctor, who explained that a finding that the wound margin was “reddish” means the wounds were ante-mortem in nature. “It means the wound was inflicted while the person was alive,” he said.(With inputs from Manoj Dhaka in Rohtak)