Eighteen days after they were killed in an alleged exchange of fire with Cyberabad police at Chatanpalli near Shadnagar, the bodies of the four persons accused of gang-rape and murder of a woman veterinarian were handed over to their families on Monday.
The bodies were taken to their villages in Makthal mandal of Narayanpet district, after a team of forensic experts from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, conducted the second post-mortem on them at the State-run Gandhi Hospital here.
The three-member team, comprising Dr. Sudhir Gupta, head of forensic at the AIIMS, Dr. Abhishek Yadav and Dr. Adarsh Kumar, conducted the autopsy for more than four hours, while Dr. Varun Chandra assisted them.
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The entire procedure was video-recorded and the footage would be submitted to the Registrar-General of the Telangana High Court, as per its direction.
Doctors of the Gandhi Hospital, who had conducted the first post-mortem at Mahabubnagar government hospital on December 6, had been asked not to be part of the procedure, as they might ‘influence’ the AIIMS team’s investigation.
“Our team did not take part in the second post-mortem. But, we have provided them with all the facilities, including X-Ray machines, a computer and a printer,” said Gandhi Hospital superintendent P Shravan Kumar.
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He said they had preserved the bodies as per the directions of the Telangana High Court and on Tuesday the AIIMS team took custody from them.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A. Abhishek Reddy had on Saturday directed the principal secretary (Medical and Health) to request the AIIMS to constitute a medical board of three senior-most forensic doctors and send them to Hyderabad immediately so that the second autopsy of the four bodies could be conducted as expeditiously as possible, and certainly before 5 p.m. on Monday.
The team reached the Gandhi hospital mortuary around 10 a.m. and completed the procedure by 2.45 p.m. The family members were asked to identify the bodies before they were taken to the autopsy room from the freezer. After completing the paperwork, the bodies were handed over to them for last rites, which were performed on Monday evening.
The autopsy was conducted in the serial order of the accused in the case (A1 to A4) — Mohammed Arif, Jollu Shiva, Jollu Naveen and Ch. Chennakeshavulu.
Sources in the Telangana police department said the medical board of the AIIMS was likely to submit its ‘classified report’ in a couple of days to the High Court. “Since the original autopsy reports were submitted to the High Court in a sealed cover without retaining any photocopies, the AIIMS team went through the procedure all over again,” said an official.
A heavy police force was deployed on the hospital premises during the procedure and the bodies of the accused were taken to their villages in two hearse vehicles with police escort.