Calcutta High Court on Tuesday ordered that the body of IIT Kharagpur student Faizan Ahmed be exhumed from a burial ground in Assam so a second post-mortem can be conducted at the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital.
The court gave the order after going through a preliminary report prepared by Ajay Gupta, a forensic medicine expert who had been engaged by the court on February 20 to carry out a forensic probe into the death.
Justice Rajasekhar Mantha wrote in his order: “Having heard the learned counsel for the parties, this court is, therefore, of the view that a second post-mortem is necessary. Let the body of the victim, Faizan Ahmed, be exhumed. The investigating officer in the matter shall coordinate with the Assam Police and ensure that the body and/or remains are exhumed, brought to Kolkata by the state police and fresh post-mortem is conducted.”
“The second post-mortem may be conducted by Dr Gupta in the presence of earlier post-mortem doctors…. The post-mortem may be conducted at the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital. The aforesaid exercise is vital and necessary for arriving at the truth behind the death of Faizan Ahmed.”
The first post-mortem was conducted at the Midnapore Medical College and Hospital.
The body of Faizan, who was from Assam, was found in a hostel room on the IIT campus in October 2022.
Forensic medicine expert Gupta told the court on March 29 that he was not satisfied with the post-mortem report submitted by the police.
Lawyer Amitesh Banerjee, who appeared for the state, submitted in the court on Tuesday: “According to the post-mortem... the student (Faizan Ahmed) has committed suicide. If the court feels that the post-mortem was not done properly, it can order a fresh post-mortem.”
The Telegraph accessed the content of Gupta’s report which says that the findings mentioned in the post-mortem report and a video of the post-mortem are not enough to arrive at a final conclusion on the exact cause and manner of death of Faizan.
Gupta attached to his report findings on injuries seen after the body was dissected. There is no mention of these injuries in the post-mortem report, says Gupta’s report.
He submitted that conducting a second post-mortem on Faizan’s body “is very much essential by exhuming the dead body at the earliest”.
Gupta had on March 17 visited room C-205 of the Lala Lajpat Rai Hall of Residence, where the decomposed body of the third-year student was found on October 14.
Faizan’s mother Rehana Ahmed told this newspaper over the phone: “The police and the IIT authorities have been trying to project the death as a case of suicide. We have been all along saying that he was ragged and murdered by senior students. It seems the court, too, is not accepting what the IIT authorities and the police are saying.”
In October, Faizan’s parents filed a writ petition in Calcutta High Court, alleging that their son had been murdered.
Lawyer Ranajit Chatterjee, who is representing Faizan’s parents, said: “During the hearing it emerged that the wounds resulting from a blade cut were not self-inflicted. They appeared to be post-mortem in nature, aimed at misdirecting the probe. A chemical was found in Faizan’s room which is normally used as a meat preservative. This was probably used to reduce the smell that normally emanates from a body that has been lying for at least three days.”
Justice Mantha said: “The presence of this chemical, Emplura (sodium nitrate), opens up serious questions as regards the time of death and whether it may have been used to preserve the body after the death of the victim.”
Calls and text messages from this newspaper to IIT Kharagpur director V.K. Tewari went unanswered.