A team of four doctors of forensic medicine, attached to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Kalyani, conducted the autopsy on the body of the nine-year-old girl from Jaynagar at the College of Medicine and JNM Hospital in Kalyani on Monday.
The move followed a Calcutta High Court order in response to the plea of the victim’s parents that the post-mortem be done at a central government-run facility.
The girl, a Class IV student, was allegedly raped and killed on Friday night.
Calcutta High Court on Sunday ordered that the autopsy of the girl be carried out by doctors of AIIMS Kalyani at the JNM Hospital if the central medical facility (AIIMS) did not have the infrastucture to carry out the post-mortem.
The autopsy, which took around four hours, was supervised by Ajay Mullick, medical superintendent of AIIMS Kalyani, while the entire process was overseen by additional chief judicial magistrate, Baruipur.
Mullick, however, refused to speak to the media since the matter was “sub judice”.
However, sources said that AIIMS doctors have told the police that initially the post-mortem suggested that the girl had been strangled and killed.
On Monday, the body of the victim arrived from Kantapukur morgue in Calcutta to the autopsy unit of JNM Hospital in Kalyani under tight security around 10am. The AIIMS team started the autopsy at noon and concluded it around 4pm.
The AIIMS team left the JNM Hospital autopsy unit at 4.30pm, while the police took away the body for its onward journey to Jaynagar at 5pm. The entire process, from the arrival of the body to the time it left, was videographed.
As the autopsy was carried out, supporters of the CPM, the BJP and the ISF staged demonstrations outside the hospital, demanding justice for the victim.
Police had a tough time managing angry political workers demanding the resignation of the chief minister Mamata Banerjee and accusing her government of running a lawless state.
BJP’s Kalyani MLA Ambika Roy lashed out at the Trinamul-led Bengal government: “The state has been passing through anarchy, and people who have so far shown much patience with this government now want it to go.”
In Jaynagar, a team of forensic experts visited the crime scene Mahismari on Monday, three days after the alleged incident, to collect samples. The team also visited the police camp that was set on fire by a mob.
The delay in sending the forensic team and the alleged inaction of the police kept Mahishmari on the boil.
Throughout Monday, people awaited the victim’s body to reach the village.
While the body was on the way to the village in the evening, Mahismari villagers staged an agitation demanding justice for the girl. Women with candles and torches blocked roads with the call to reclaim the night and demand justice for the minor victim and punishment for the cops for alleged inaction.
“If the police had shown alacrity (in finding the child when she went missing), her life would have been saved. The guilty cops will have to be punished. Like in the case of RG Kar, here too we will fight for justice,” a Mahismari villager said.
