Guwahati: The criminal investigation department (CID) of Assam Police has filed a supplementary chargesheet against three doctors and a magistrate in a case concerning the unnatural death of a minor girl in the Darrang district last year.
The chargesheet was filed (in case number 114/2022 under Section 120B read with Sections 201/218/409 of IPC) against Dr Arun Chandra Deka, Dr Ajanta Bordoloi, Dr A Sharma and Ashirbad Hazarika, the magistrate in the case pertaining to the death of the girl child after obtaining sanction to prosecute them from the competent authority.
Notably, the case was registered at Dhula police station on June 12, 2022
The sheet has been taken into cognizance by the special judge, Darrang.
It may be recalled that CID has earlier filed chargesheet against the main Krishna Kamal Baruah under Sections 354/354(A)/302/201 and 511 read with 376 IPC, read with Section 10 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.
All three doctors, the magistrate and Krishna Kamal Baruah have already been arrested in the case.
“Investigation conducted by CID has revealed that the magistrate Ashirbad Hazarika has not conducted any inquest at the place of occurrence and has not at all seen the body of the victim in a hanging position. Instead, he dishonestly and wrongfully created the inquest report by breaching the trust reposed on him,” a statement issued here by the superintendent of police, CID Assam, on Saturday said.
“He (the magistrate) stated that he has seen the victim in a hanging position and declared that the death was due to hanging without conducting any inquiry and has willfully omitted the description of the nature of the ligature mark in the report in order to save the accused,” the SP, CID Assam, said.
The CID official further informed that the three doctors who conducted the first post-mortem had conspired to save the accused and had dishonestly and wrongly created the first post-mortem report by breaching the trust reposed on them and concluded that the death was due to hanging and that there was no evidence of any sexual assault.
“Whereas the panel of forensic experts, as well as the second post-mortem conducted, another set of doctors, have clearly brought out the injuries on the body of the victim and opined that the death was due to antemortem strangulation with a coir-like rope and homicidal in nature,” the CID official said.
“The other two cases registered against the police officers under the Prevention of Corruption Act are under investigation,” the official said.
Notably, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, after visiting the house of the victim and in view of apparent lapses, had directed that the case be transferred to CID, Assam for a thorough probe.
The CID took over the case on August 12, 2022, and adequate evidence was brought on record during the probe to prove the offences of molestation, murder, destruction of evidence, attempt to rape under IPC and sexual assault on a minor under POCSO Act.
During the investigation, the CID exhumed the victim’s body to conduct a second post-mortem. A panel of forensic medical experts was consulted and DNA profiling of the main accused was conducted, which matched with the fluids on the clothes of the victim.
Accordingly, the detailed chargesheet was filed on September 25, 2022, against the main accused, who is presently in judicial custody.
Further investigation into the bribery charges and role of government officials revealed that commissions and omissions (to screen the accused) were committed by the doctors who conducted the (first) post-mortem and they were arrested on November 7, 2022, interrogated in police custody and remanded to judicial custody.
The chief minister, while referring to the case, said that “through this CID probe and subsequent action (against all involved in the case) a strong message has been sent to the police, magistrate and doctors to do their duties diligently.
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“Issues similar to the case were deliberated at length during the SP’s conference and sometimes, post-mortem and inquest reports do not help police… rather they help the accused,” Sarma said, adding that in the past, the authorities have tried to take such cases to their logical conclusion.
“In this case, which is a rare one, as evidence was sabotaged, the matter had to be taken to a different level,” he said.
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