Delhi high court finds 'highly inexplicable' words in Tanwar's post-mortem

The Delhi high court on Wednesday perused the post-mortem report of Surendra Tanwar and observed that it raised several questions regarding the preservation of the hacked body parts and the plastic bags in which they were found wrapped.

Surendra Tanwar, a Central Government Health Scheme doctor who treated several politicians including Congress president Sitaram Kesri, was found dead on October 29, 1993 with his head, right and left arms, and left leg cut and wrapped in plastic bags.

A division bench of the high court -- hearing a public interest petition seeking the transfer of the murder probe from the crime branch of Delhi police to the Central Bureau of Investigation -- told Delhi government counsel S K Aggarwal that the post-mortem report had several ''highly inexplicable'' statements.

Aggarwal pleaded inability to clarify these doubts and sought a short adjournment as the doctor who had performed the autopsy could not be present in the court on Wednesday.

The counsel also informed the bench that the DNA report on certain objects sent to the Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology would not be available before June 5. He said the police had received a letter from the CCMB on May 23 to this effect.

Counsel Kamini Jaiswal appearing for the petitioner, the All India Young Lawyers Association, submitted that the crime branch probe was ''back to square one'' and the matter should be transferred to the CBI.

The bench, consisting of acting Chief Justice Mahinder Narain and Justice S K Mahajan, then adjourned the matter to July 9.

Perusing the post-mortem report dated November 4, 1993, prepared by Chandrakant of Safdarjung hospital, the judges wanted to know what the ''ice burns'' mentioned in the report referred to.

It also termed ''absolutely inexplicable'' the finding in the report that there was no smell or putrification of the body. The judges also questioned Aggarwal about the reference to ''clear-cut margins'' and wanted to know what kind of weapon was used.

As for the bags in which the body parts were recovered, the judges expressed surprise over their dimension and wondered if such bags were available in the market.

The All India Young Lawyers Association had moved the high court, contending that the Delhi police was deliberately going slow on investigation into the case because of ''political pressure''. Seeking the transfer of the case to the CBI and the court's monitoring of the probe, the petitioners averred that more than three-and-a-half years after the gruesome murder, the police had not found anything.

Denying allegations of deliberate lethargy, the Delhi police in its status report submitted to the high court stated that a Special Investigation Team had been set up to expeditiously probe the murder.

The court, during the last hearing, directed the crime branch to submit the post-mortem report, the DNA reports of Dr Tanwar's blood-stained clothes and the cement slab and pipe recovered from the home of his friend Ratnakar Mudgil.

UNI