The high court on Wednesday struck down a petition by IIT Kharagpur raising questions about the second post-mortem on Faizan Ahmed, a third-year student who was found dead in a hostel room last October.
The court did not accept the state government’s prayer opposing the decision to hand over the probe to a court-monitored special investigation team (SIT).
The court, however, partly accepted the state’s plea on changing the composition of the SIT.
The division bench of Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya said in their order: “It is settled legal principle that change of investigating agency is done in rarest of rare cases, and the fundamental principle on which the change in investigation is ordered, is to ensure that the person who has lodged the complaint/FIR has faith in the system that the investigation is being conducted in a proper manner and is not derailed by any external force. However, in the instant case, the factual scenario is a little different.
“There was a first post-mortem report, and then a second one was conducted upon orders of the court, and this court has recorded the submissions made by the state that it does not resist the direction for the conduct of the second post-mortem. In such circumstances, the second report would supersede the first. Therefore, the investigation should proceed based on the second report.”
The forensic medicine expert who conducted the second post-mortem in May in Kolkata had observed in his report: “Death of Faizan Ahmed, 23 years... was due to profuse bleeding causing haemorrhagic shock and combined effect infused over the chest and over the head. The manner of death of Faizan Ahmed... was antemortem injuries, homicidal in nature. Further opinion will be given after receipt of the report of preserved articles from the forensic science laboratory.”
Faizan’s remains were exhumed from a burial ground in Assam’s Dibrugarh, his hometown, for the second post-mortem.
The first post-mortem, which was conducted at the Midnapore Medical College and Hospital in October, could not conclude how the student died.
Rehana Ahmed, mother of the deceased student, told The Telegraph: “I am happy that the court has affirmed its faith in the second post-mortem report and ordered that the investigation would be based on the second report. I believe the second post-mortem report would help the investigators establish that my son was murdered by senior students, who subjected him to ragging.”
When contacted, Samrat Sen, the lawyer who represented the state government, declined to comment.
The division bench observed that the state government is not as much concerned about the findings of the second post-mortem as it is with the composition of the SIT.
Justice Rajasekhar Mantha of the high court in an order on June 14 had appointed K. Jayaraman, additional director general of police, headquarters, to lead the probe. The judge said Jayaraman would be helped by Susanta Dhar, a retired officer of the homicide division of Kolkata police, and Kaushik Basak, OC, homicide, CID.
The division bench said Jayaraman would continue to lead the probe team but set aside the appointment of the other two. It asked Jayaraman to appoint “young and energetic officers who would be able to carry out a thorough and impartial investigation”.