Doubts raised over autopsy report of Pakistani Hindu girl

Doubts have been raised over the autopsy report of a Hindu dental college student found dead in her hostel room in Pakistan's Sindh province, as some medico-legal experts cited several flaws in it, according to a media report.

Namrita Chandni, a final-year student of Bibi Asifa Dental College in Larkana district and a social activist, was found lying on a cot by her friends on Monday with a rope tied to her neck. Her room was locked from inside. Police is yet to ascertain whether the girl committed suicide or was murdered.

The girl hailed from Ghotki district, which recently witnessed riots over after a school principal from the minority Hindu community was booked on charges of alleged blasphemy.

Experts and officials of the medico-legal section of the health department in Karachi believe that the autopsy report carried many flaws and missed key facts.

They said that the ligature mark in picture was not due to a dupatta.

"It was some rope material," Dawn newspaper quoted a senior official, who wished not to be named, as saying.

"The post-mortem findings show suicide but ligature mark shows strangulation, said the expert.

In the post-mortem report, time between death and post-mortem was 11-12 hours but the picture appeared to be about 24 hours old because decomposition signs had developed, the report said.

The experts said that no comments had been mentioned in the post-mortem report conducted in Larkana about decomposition. Instead, it has been mentioned in the report that the condition of the body was fresh.

The experts said it was also questionable as to how a five-feet-tall girl managed to hang herself from the ceiling fan, which was 15 feet high.

The girl's brother Dr Vishal, a medical consultant in Dow Medical College in Karachi, also said that the marks around her neck suggested that she had not committed suicide.

He further claimed that the marks on her neck looked like those made by cable wires, while the wounds on her arms suggested that someone was holding her down.

Official sources in the medico-legal section of health department said that it would be more appropriate if a proper medical board had been constituted to conduct an autopsy of the student or her body should have been shifted to Karachi for a post-mortem examination, the report said.

Pakistani authorities on Wednesday ordered a judicial probe within 30 days into the death.