Bhandara triple rape-murder: Will truth be buried under botched forensic investigation?

Despite the manifest savagery and higher body count the sexual assault and murder of three minor girls in Lakhani village of Bhandara district has failed to elicit outrage akin to the nationwide indignation after the December 16 gang rape and killing of a young woman in Delhi But what MiD DAY has now discovered raises concerns that the apparent laxity on part of police officials and the local civil hospital in conducting the preliminary investigation may have irreparably damaged the prospects of uncovering the true facts of the matter The three bodies were found floating in this well on February 16 at a villager39s farm near National Highway 6 in Bhandara The bodies of the three girls all siblings were found in a village well on February 16 An initial postmortem suggested they had been raped and sodomised before being thrown into the water hole However this newspaper has learnt that the autopsies were performed by a panel of doctors who were not forensic experts and that they had not preserved any samples for diatom test to conclusively establish whether or not the victims were alive when they were tossed into the well It gets worse Crucial clues like fingernail clippings and hair samples routinely collected in any sexual assault or rape case of the deceased were not compiled by the doctors who conducted the postmortem The nail clippings may have held DNA samples of the accused Interestingly neither the police nor the civil surgeon saw it fit to send the autopsy reports to the department of forensic medicine Government Medical College ndash barely 60 km away from the civil hospital ndash or to Indira Gandhi Medical College both in Nagpur They also did not rope in forensic experts for advice before and during the autopsy Trip to Mumbai These shocking facts came to light when MiD DAY learnt that Lakhani police had come to the department of forensic medicine Grant Medical College in Mumbai two days ago with bone samples of the three girls for conducting a diatom test However instead of sending dry bones the specimens were put in a jar containing a solution of sodium chloride salt and water which is not the usual practice Sources at Forensic Science Laboratory Nagpur confirmed not getting the nail clippings and hair samples along with the viscera and clothes sent for examination Dr RB Chande civil surgeon Bhandara Rural Hospital admitted to MiD DAY that no forensic expert was part of the team of doctors who conducted the autopsy ldquoA panel of five doctors including Dr Bhavesh Gulhane D Ortho Dr CS Khobragade DGOgynaecologist Dr Aparna Rangari MBBS Dr Pradeep Anand ENT and Dr Praveen Padole physician performed the postmortem that started at 1 pm on February 17 and lasted till 6 pm as directed by the police Dr Gulhane was on postmortem duty that day and as per the wishes of the cops the other doctors were roped in The entire autopsy process was captured on video as advised by the policerdquo he said When asked the reason for not preserving the samples diatom as per norms Dr Chande gave a startling reply ldquoI have never heard of diatom test before We implicitly followed the directions of the policerdquo he saidu00a0For not involving forensic experts in his defence Chande said ldquoThe superintendent of police wanted us to perform the autopsy fast Initially cops directed us to send the team of medical officers to the rural hospital at Lakhani village itself I had even agreed to this But later the SP informed us that the autopsy would be conducted at Bhandara and we obeyed the instructionsrdquo lsquoNo pressurersquo Both special inspector general of police Nagpur Range Rajendra Singh and superintendent of police Bhandara district Aarti Singh denied putting any pressure on the civil surgeonu00a0ldquoIf the civil surgeon did not have forensic experts to conduct the autopsy he should have given this in writing to us He is the medical authority and he should have suggested the alternative The police cannot decide who would conduct the autopsyrdquo Aarti Singh said Police surgeon SM Patil said ldquoIf the rural doctors had any doubts or found the case to be too sensitive they should have referred the matter to the medical college in Nagpur or at least consulted the experts at the government medical collegerdquo The doctors who carried out the autopsy could find evidence of sexual natural and unnatural assault on all three bodies But they could not determine the exact cause of death and had preserved the viscera samples for chemical analysis to ascertain if the victims were drugged or poisoned before or during the act for the histopathology test to establish whether or not they had any ailments and for the diatom test to confirm if they were alive when thrown into the well Even vaginal swabs were collected and sent for testing but the civil surgeon is not very optimistic about the outcome The three sisters went missing in the afternoon of February 14 For the next 48 hours their mother and grandfather kept searching for them The family had approached the police in the evening of February 14 but their lethargic response ensured no headway was made in the case On February 16 their bodies were found in the well twoandahalf kilometres from their house in the farm of a villager near National Highway 6 The deceased were fully clothed Only during autopsy did the episode of sexual assault come to light A fact worth noting is that the medical officers who conducted the autopsy did not visit the scene of crime before or after the postmortem Also no scientist from the Forensic Science Laboratory Nagpur came to the spot for investigation The victimsrsquo clothes were completely drenched and it is unclear whether the police have taken any precautions to preserve the same for DNA No headway Cops have so far questioned over 200 villagers hoping for a breakthrough in the case SP Aarti Singh said ldquoThough we have quizzed a large number of local residents only 15 of them are under suspicion But until we come to know the exact cause of death of the girls we will keep probing the case from all possible angles The test reports should give us a definite direction All three girls were raped and sexually assaulted before their deathrdquo Following our conversation with the superintendent of police according to sources cops approached Dr P Dixit professor and head department of forensic medicine and toxicology Government Medical College Nagpur seeking intervention for a second opinion Video CD and photographs taken during autopsy were also handed over to the experts When contacted Dr Dixit confirmed the development to MiD DAY and said ldquoWe have asked the police to submit us all the relevant findings from reports viscera DNA profiling diatom etc and then we would give our opinion to themrdquo Sources from the medical college even hinted that the video shoot during the autopsy has not been done professionally and hence they will have to rely on reports of scientific tests for reaching a conclusionu00a0The mortal remains of the victims have been buried in their village According to the police the locals have a custom of not cremating childrenrsquos bodies ldquoHowever we reserve the right to exhume the corpses for a second autopsy if requiredrdquo the SP said Also forensic experts at the medical college hinted that in case they are unable to arrive at an inference on the basis of the video footage still photos and test reports they will definitely demand that the three bodies be disinterred Unanswered questions 1 Why did police not register the missing complaint on Feb 14 2 Why did cops not summon scientists from FSL Nagpur for crime scene investigation on Feb 16 after the bodies were found in the well FSL team inspected the spot after 10 days 3 Why did police not insist that the autopsies be done at Government Medical College Nagpur and instead got them done at Bhandara General hospital 4 Why did the civil surgeon at Bhandara not seek advice from forensic experts of Government Medical College before and after postmortem 5 Why did the doctors who conducted the autopsies not declare the cause of death 6 Why were the diatom test samples sent to Grant Medical College Mumbai when the same could have been done at the medical college in Nagpur 7 Why did police not get a second opinion on the revelations sexual assault with other forensic experts while filing a case 8 Was the videographer trained to shoot such complex autopsies Who directed him on the angles and which body parts to shoot