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| Rajneesh’s custodial death | | Srinagar post mortem video doesn’t show any burn injuries, torture marks | | AHMED ALI FAYYAZ | 10/14/2009 12:12:41 AM |
| Judge who granted remand and a doctor on autopsy were both from Jammu
SRINAGAR, Oct 13: Notwithstanding a section of politics and media trying to agitate regional and communal sentiments over the death of a Jammu man in custody of Srinagar Police last week, both, the judges who granted the remand twice, as well as the pathologist, who conducted the post mortem of Rajneesh Kumar Sharma alias Rajesh in Srinagar, have turned out to be from the religion and the region of the deceased. While the admission records of Jesus & Marry School Dalgate have shown the age of the girl behind the tragedy, Amina Marazi of Abi Karpora, as 16 years and 11 months, observation details of a 4-member team of the doctors of Government Medical College (GMC) Srinagar---who have conducted the post mortem and recorded the entire procedure on video in presence of an executive magistrate---do not show any injuries or torture marks on the dead body.
Even as a couple of Police personnel have been placed under suspension, SHO Ram Munshi Bagh, Inspector Mushtaq Ahmed, has been attached to District Police Lines (DPL) Srinagar, pending a magisterial inquiry being conducted by Additional District Magistrate of Srinagar, Mohammad Akbar Ganai, Early Times has learned from authoritative sources that the team of four doctors of GMC Srinagar had not found any ante mortem or post mortem burn injuries or torture marks while conducting the autopsy on Rajneesh Kumar’s body on October 6th. They had found just a few scratch marks and a slight swelling on his ankle besides the marks left by the noose on his neck.
Preliminary post mortem report, prepared and signed by a team of four doctors of GMC Srinagar as also by an executive magistrate on duty (Tehsildar Nazir Ahmed) between 1500 hours to 1600 hours on October 6th records: “A few scratch marks in front aspect of left fore-arm present. Left ankle slightly swollen. No other injury elsewhere on the body except ligature mark round the neck (ante mortem)”. Entire procedure has been conducted in presence of the magistrate at GMC Srinagar and fully recorded on video.
Rajneesh had been arrested in Jammu on September 30th and produced before a judicial magistrate for remand, first time on October 1st and second time on October 5th. He had been found hanging against an iron grill of the bath room of his cell at Police Station Nehru Park, rushed to SMHS Hospital where he breathed his last.
Under the orders of District Magistrate Srinagar, Mehraj Ahmed Kakroo, Principal GMC Srinagar, Dr Shahida Mir, constituted a team of four doctors for conducting the post mortem in advance of a detailed FSL analysis that usually takes several days or weeks. Headed by Professor and Head of the Department of Forensic Medicine, Dr Fareeda Noor, the post mortem team had three more members, namely Dr Deepti Mahajan of the Department of Pathology (resident of Jammu), Dr Riyaz Ahmed Khan and Dr Kausar Amin.
Investigating Officer, ASI Abdul Qayoom, has maintained in all the case diaries and other documents that the minor injury had been caused on September 30th when Rajneesh jumped out from the first floor of his tenant’s house in Sarwal and was caught by some residents, who handed him over to the Police party. After making an entry of the departure report at a Police station in Jammu and taking the custody under rules, a Srinagar Police party, led by SI Ghulam Jeelani (incharge Police Post Nehru Park), had carried Rajneesh all the way to Srinagar by night, produced him before a doctor at Police Hospital Srinagar on October 1st for necessary medical examination and finally produced him before a judicial magistrate for remand.
On examination in the forenoon on October 1st, Dr Irshad of Police Hospital Srinagar passed Rajneesh (who constantly identified himself as Pawan Kumar Sharma, name of his brother) through several tests, including an X-Ray and recorded his observation: “Trauma on left leg/ left fore-arm”. He prescribed some ordinary medicines and described Rajneesh fit for custodial interrogation by Police. Thereafter, Rajneesh was produced before Forest Magistrate Srinagar, Mr Vishesh Parihar (resident of Jammu) who granted remand of five days. Rajneesh identified himself as Pawan Kumar before the judge.
Immediately after his initial remand expired on October 5th, a Police party produced Rajneesh before Judge Small Causes Srinagar, Mr Ashok Kumar Gupta (resident of Jammu) who granted an extension to the period of his remand. Police also got the remand of another co-accused and Rajneesh’s brother-in-law, Kaushal Sharma, extended at the same court. Both were earlier medically examined by Dr Nisar at Police Hospital Srinagar and declared fit for custodial interrogation by Police, though he observed some swelling on Rajneesh’s ankle. Rajneesh once again signed as Pawan Kumar Sharma before the judge.
Srinagar Police party had earlier got the co-accused Guru Dutt and Kaushal Sharma arrested from Jammu on August 26th and September 2nd respectively. Guru Dutt had later jumped the bail which was contested by Srinagar Police and ultimately withdrawn by the judge on September 26th.
An employee of the state Excise Department, Mohammad Yousuf Marazi of Abi Karpora (Dal Lake), and his family had lodged a missing report at Police Post Nehru Park on August 21, 2008, with the complaint that his 16-17 year old daughter, Amina, had disappeared from his residential houseboat earlier in the day. When Police discovered that the girl had been probably kidnapped or had eloped with a Jammu resident and his associates, who had stayed at Marazi’s houseboat “Navy”, and decamped with cash and gold ornaments worth Rs 2.50 Lakh, it filed case FIR No: 186 of 2009 under section 363 (kidnapping), 380 (theft) and 109 (abetment to kidnapping) RPC at PS Ram Munshi Bagh on August 25th.
Call Detail Record (CDR) of Amina’s mobile phone No: 9622095963 (Airtel) made it clear that she had passed through Srinagar Airport and landed at Jammu Airport on August 21stitself. During the investigation, Srinagar Police observed that Amina’s Airtel SIM which had earlier been used on her phone set (IMEI No: 351945033743580) had also been used in one Pawan Kumar Sharma’s phone set which earlier carried his own SIM 9797352554. Change of phones and SIM had occurred on September 14th after days of getting Amina’s phone switched off.
With the help of CDR and other inputs, Police conducted a raid on Rajneesh’s and Pawan’s house in Sarwal but found them absent. Later, it carried out another raid on a different house ion Sarwal where it found three women. While as one woman described herself as the house-owner, another, who identified herself as Shalu Sharma, claimed to be Pawan Kumar’s wife. One-odd male, who wore just an under shirt and pent, jumped out from the rear but was overpowered by some people and handed over to Police. Carrying a mobile phone in his hand, he identified himself as Pawan Kumar but turned out to be the real accused Rajneesh Kumar Sharma after his dead body was flown to Jammu from Srinagar last week.
During the course of investigation, Srinagar Police checked the admission records of Jesus & Marry Co-Ed School Dalgate and discovered that on the time of her admission her date of birth had been recorded as 09-11-1992. She was thus found to be a minor and search was accordingly launched for her recovery from the kidnapping as the minor female’s consent or will is not acceptable by law in such matters. However, her real age, according to doctors as well as Police, could be ascertained only after her medical examination by the experts following such orders from the judicial magistrate.
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