HC on Tania report delay: Is AIIMS the only hospital for post mortems?

The Delhi High Court on Friday rapped the city police for not filing the post mortem report of 19-year-old Arunachal Pradesh youth Nido Tania and asked AIIMS and the CBI, which controls central forensic labs, to apprise it of the status along with reasons for the delay on Monday.

The court also asked the Delhi government to file a report giving details about the total number of post mortems being conducted by its hospitals every day and the time taken by them in giving the reports, noting that the capital had "primitive" infrastructure for examining evidence.

It also said that there should be a "central monitoring system" in place to keep track of hate crimes and asked the police to file details all such cases. "We fail provide security to one section of society. It is very shocking," a bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana said.

On being asked about the progress in the probe in the Tania case, Delhi police said, "We will not take more than 15 days in filing the charge sheet. We are waiting for the post mortem report which is not ready for want of viscera analysis and histo-pathological report."

Dealing with the host of issues related to law and order and investigation, the high court said, "Is AIIMS the only hospital which conducts postmortems? If you are unable to give post-mortem report in so many days in a sensational case like this then what about the status of other cases?

"We must say the infrastructure (to examine evidence in criminal cases) is at a primitive stage in national capital."

"There are other hospitals which conduct post mortems but AIIMS is the best and moreover, the post mortems there are video graphed," Dayan Krishnan, appearing for police, said.

On the issue of sensitization of common public so that sentiments of natives of North-eastern are not hurt, the bench said, "in fact police and government need to be sensitized."

The court also referred to the death of a person inside the jail and said, "this is pathetic that his postmortem was not conducted for six days".

"The government should understand why we are wasting so much of our time. It's a serious issue. Merely issuing directions will not work, as it has to be taken up by each department," it said.

The bench asked the Delhi government to file a report giving details about the total number of post mortems being conducted by its hospitals every day and the time taken by them in giving the reports.

Taking note of grievance of people from Northeast, it asked the government to publicise measures for sensitisation and security of the people from that region.

Tania, 19, died on January 29 following a scuffle at Lajpat Nagar where a shopkeeper teased Nido over his hair and look.   

During the hearing, Additional Solicitor General Rajeeve Mehra, appearing for the Home Ministry, referred to the 2012 office memorandum of the ministry which had provided that there would be seven police officers in the city who would act as nodal officers for dealing with the problems faced by persons from north-eastern states.

"What is the use if such incidents are happening? Recently, 28 incidents of various kinds have happened against them.... We fail provide security to one section of society. It is very shocking," the court said.

There should be a "central monitoring system" in place to keep track of such hate crimes, it said and asked the police to file details all such cases.

"First of all, a person died and you have not been to file the post mortem report even after 6 days. It is unfortunate. You cannot go to AIIMS for each and every case," the bench said.

It also asked the police to involve cops and officers, hailing from north-eastern states, in cases involving persons from those areas.

The court also asked the counsel, representing the N-E persons, to give suggestions for making the city more safe for them.

The ASG assured the court that the suggestions would be taken note by the ministry in formulating the future course of action.

The high court, on February 3, had taken suo motu cognizance of media reports about the death of Nido Tania, son of an Arunachal Pradesh MLA, after he was allegedly beaten up shopkeepers in Lajpat Nagar area in South Delhi.

Police had said that the nature of injuries and death of victim can't be correlated till they receive post-mortem report which will take time.