An expert engaged by the Calcutta High Court to carry out a forensic probe into the death of an IIT Kharagpur student told the court on Wednesday that he was not satisfied with the post-mortem report submitted by police and pleaded for a fresh post-mortem.
Sandip Bhattacharyya, counsel appearing for forensic medicine expert Ajay Gupta, submitted in the court of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha that his client was not satisfied with the report of the post-mortem conducted on Faizan Ahmed, a third-year student of mechanical engineering who was found dead in a hostel room last October.
The lawyer said the videos of the post-mortem contained nothing but a short clip. “After thoroughly examining the report my client could not determine whether there was an injury on the skull. According to him, the videos were shot... in a way that the injury could not be detected,” the lawyer said.
The court order says: “...a preliminary report must be considered... since the post-mortem videos after being examined have been found to be inadequate to arrive at any final conclusion.”
Gupta also submitted that he intended to file a preliminary report because he felt the body might have to be exhumed for a fresh autopsy, said lawyers involved in the case.
When contacted by The Telegraph, lawyer Ranajit Chatterjee, who is representing Faizan’s parents, said: “It may be reasonably presumed that the forensic expert felt that there was some lacunae in the post-mortem and the police investigation.”
Justice Mantha asked Gupta’s lawyer to file an application by April 6 for a fresh post-mortem.
The court had on February 20 engaged Gupta, earlier associated with the department of forensic and state medicine, Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research, Kolkata, to conduct a forensic probe after observing that there was a need to verify the post-mortem report.
That day, state advocate-general S.N. Mookherjee, representing police, told the court that Faizan had committed suicide and that he had been depressed because of his failure to secure an internship offer.
“The police and the IIT are repeatedly trying to pass off the death as suicide. But Gupta’s submission is indicative of the fact that it may not be what the police and the IIT want everyone to believe,” said Aniruddha Mitra, one of the two lawyers representing Faizan’s family.
Calls and text messages from this newspaper to the additional superintendent of police, Kharagpur, Rana Mukherjee, who had been asked by the court to ensure the police probe was carried out in a proper way, did not elicit any response.
Calls and text messages to IIT Kharagpur director V.K. Tewari also went unanswered.
