Exhume body of IIT-Kharagpur student for 2nd post-mortem: Calcutta HC

KOLKATA: The Calcutta high court on Tuesday asked police to exhume the body of IIT Kharagpur third-year mechanical engineering student Faizan Ahmed - buried in Assam's Dibrugarh - for a second post-mortem. The exercise will have to be completed within a month and the HC will hear the case on June 30.
Faizan's decomposed body was found from a Lala Lajpat Rai hostel room on October 14, 2022 and his parents had alleged he was murdered. On Tuesday, the parents informed the HC through their counsel Ranajit Chatterjee that they were giving their consent for the exhumation and the second post-mortem. Anindya Mitra, senior advocate for IIT Kharagpur, said the institute had nothing to say on the ongoing probe.
Justice Rajasekhar Mantha in his order referred to two visible injury marks on the back of the victim's head for which the "base of the skull ought to have been examined and reported by the post-mortem doctor which has not been done". The judge also referred to cut marks on the arms of the victim that were "inflicted after death". Besides, the order said, a November 17, 2022 police report mentioned that a chemical called Emplura (sodium nitrate) had been seized from the hostel room.
Sandip Kumar Bhattacharya, the amicus curiae, told the HC that sodium nitrate was normally used to preserve meat.
We will get justice, says Faizan mom from Assam
Ordering a second post-mortem on the body of IIT Kharagpur student Faizan Ahmed, Justice Rajshekhar Mantha said, "When a body decomposes, it is impossible that the fellow inmates of the hostel would not be able to detect it. There was mysteriously no smell from the body for three days. The presence of this chemical, Emplura, opens up serious questions as regards the time of death and whether it may have been used to preserve the body after death."
After Faizan's parents questioned the initial post-mortem findings, the HC had sought a second opinion from expert Ajay Gupta, a former forensic and toxicology professor. In his report, Gupta said the video of the first post-mortem revealed some injuries "over the (cranial) vault of the head" and "front left side of the chest" that were not mentioned in the report. He urged that a second post-mortem be conducted after exhuming the body.
The court said the exhumed body would have to be brought back to Medical College Kolkata by Bengal police in coordination with their Assam counterparts and asked the Assam local courts to help in the process. It also directed that a forensic expert in Assam be present when the body is exhumed. Justice Mantha, however, made it clear that the order "should not be construed as casting any aspersions on the state police since they have proceeded primarily on the post-mortem report given to them".
From Tinsukia, Faizan's mother, Rehana, said the order validated what they had been saying all along, that Faizan did not die by suicide. "We will get justice. We have full faith in the Calcutta HC. We suspect they (the institute) are trying to shield some people."
(With inputs from Sujoy Khanra
in Kharagpur)