Persons who had access to Satnam examined
Forensic experts of the Hurt and Homicide Wing of the State Police Crime Branch on Wednesday examined at least six persons who had access to 23-year-old law student Satnam Singh on August 4, the day he was purportedly found fatally injured in a cell at the State Mental Health Centre (SMHC) here.
Those examined included SMHC janitors and the warder of a prison in Kollam where Satnam was held as a remand prisoner after the district police arrested him on August 1 on the charge of attempting to assault Mata Amritanandamayi, a spiritual leader, during a public appearance at her math.
DNA comparison
The investigators reportedly took “buccal swabs”, from the cheek of the “suspects”, to extract their DNA and compare it with that extracted from the “debris”, (skin, hair, blood, etc.), collected from the body of the victim, particularly his fingernails.
They also collected hair, saliva and blood samples of the suspects and “scrapings” of their skin.
Forensic pathologists, who conducted the post-mortem examination on Satnam’s body, found nearly 30 injuries, including at least two fatal ones.
Their preliminary inference was that “multiple actions of aggression and defence” preceded his death. Possibly, a blow sustained on the back of his head from a “blunt instrument” could have killed him.
Forensic report
Forensic doctors would give their opinion on the cause of Satnam’s death after they received the forensic chemical examination report of the biological evidence extracted from the victim’s body during autopsy.
Investigators also collected evidence from the “crime scene”, the cell in which SMHC staff purportedly found “Satnam knocked unconscious and bleeding from the ear”.
SMHC staff reportedly told investigators that they had rushed Satnam to the Medical College
Hospital where he was pronounced dead an hour later. Investigators asked SMHC authorities why they did not immediately report the matter to the local police station.
Investigators said the DNA extracted from the “foreign” epithelial cells, hair and blood collected from the body of the victim would be compared with that extracted from the “buccal swabs” of the “suspects” to “irrefutably” identify Satnam’s “assailants”, if any.
Staff questioned
The agency also questioned and recorded the statements of the staff of the government facilities, including those at a prison in Kollam, where Satnam was held in judicial custody after his arrest from the Amritanandamayi math.
Satnam, the son of an agriculturist and businessman in Gaya in Bihar, was missing from his home since May.
He was a student of Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University in Lucknow.
Satnam had to discontinue his studies briefly to undergo psychiatric treatment at a clinic in his hometown.
His relatives said Satnam was a precocious student who was spiritually and philosophically oriented.
Clueless
Satnam’s family still have no clue how their son turned up in Kerala and also where he was all these months.
Multiple actions of aggression suspected Evidence collected from cell at hospital
