Doctors who conducted postmortem failed to ascertain the cause of death.(Representational)
The Lucknow Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) has ruled out poisoning as the cause of death of 32-year-old youth Yunus Khan, who was a witness in the murder case of the father of a teenaged girl raped last year in Unnao, police said.
Yunus, who used to run a grocery shop, died at his house on August 18. His family had buried his body without getting an autopsy done, and without informing the CBI, which is probing the murder case of the rape victim’s father. His body was exhumed on August 25 after the rape victim’s uncle alleged that Yunus was murdered.
Doctors who conducted postmortem failed to ascertain the cause of death. “The FSL report of Yunus has been received by SP Unnao. No poison has been detected in the viscera, which was sent for chemical analysis,” said Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Anand Kumar.
BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar was arrested on April 13 this year on charges of raping the girl in June last year. The CBI has chargesheeted five persons, including Singh’s brother Atul, for allegedly killing the rape victim’s father, who died in judicial custody on April 9.
Five days after the death of Yunus, the rape victim’s uncle had filed a complaint with the Unnao SP, alleging that Yunus was killed and demanded that his body be exhumed and sent for autopsy. Sources said he claimed that Yunus had died of poisoning.
A day later, Yunus’s wife Sabina Khatoon submitted another application with the SP office, stating her husband was suffering from liver cirrhosis and died of natural causes on August 18.
Sabina also claimed that the uncle of the rape victim had visited their house on August 22 night and offered them Rs 8 lakh to give police false information about Yunus’s death, and threatened her with dire consequences if she refused to do so.