HC orders probe by a senior officer into doctor's death in car

The order was delivered yesterday by Justice A M Khanvilkar and Justice R Y Ganoo, who said they wanted a senior officer to handle the case for smooth conduct of investigations.

The crime branch was investigating the case after Dr Mukund Kedia, a resident of J B Nagar in suburban Andheri, was found dead in his car with multiple injuries on his face on May 4, 2010.

Justice Khanvilkar said, "We are not happy with the investigations. The incident happened in 2010. Does the crime branch work at this speed."

Mukund, a student of G S Medical College, was doing a post-graduate course after completing MBBS.

 

Father of the deceased, S K Kedia, who is also a doctor, had moved the High Court asking for a probe by CBI or by a special team into the suspicious circumstances leading to his son's death.

Kedia argued that instead of registering a case of murder, the police had closed the case by making an accidental death report.

According to the petitioner's lawyer, Abhishek Yende, a doctor attached to Cooper hospital, Pankaj Gajre, had initially said that he suspected Mukund's death was due to poisoning, but in the postmortem report, he stated that the doctor had died of "coronary heart disease".

After Kedia met the then Commissioner of Police Sanjeev Dayal in April 2011, opinion of three more doctors was sought, who said that Gajre's findings were inappropriate.

Kedia then complained to Maharashtra Medical Council, following which, Gajre was suspended.