Srinagar: In a new twist to the alleged
rape and murder of two women in Shopian, a doctor who prepared
the vaginal slides of the victims has told the CBI that no
samples from the duo had ever been taken.
The doctor, who was a part of the second postmortem team
from Pulwama district hospital, was questioned by the CBI team
camping here during which she told the investigators that no
vaginal swab was ever taken of the two victims -- Neelofar
(22) and Aasiya (17), official sources said today.
The doctor broke down during the questioning and
narrated the entire sequence of events to the CBI officials,
the sources said.
The sources claimed that the doctor had taken samples
from gloves used in the gynaecological ward of the district
hospital and prepared a slide which showed presence of semen.
The CBI conducted searches at the hospital late last
night and seized various pairs of gloves and records available
at the hospital, they said.
While the CBI was officially tightlipped about the case,
sources said the lady doctor informed the CBI that she had
done this public pressure was mounting.
The CBI team which searched the hospital last night was
accompanied by the doctor, they said.
The exhumation of bodies was expected to be undertaken
tomorrow and the family members had also given permission for
the same.
The CBI took over the investigation into the case on
September 17 and a team headed by Deputy Inspector General
Satish Golcha have been camping here since then. The agency`s
Special Director S C Sinha had also visited here recently and
taken stock of the situation.
Last month it came to light that key forensic evidence
relating to the vaginal swabs of the two victims did not match
with that of -- Neelofar and Aasiya.
The Special Investigating Team headed by Farooq Ahmed,
at present Inspector General of Police (Kashmir), had sent
these to CFSL for making a DNA profile of the tissue cells
present in slides.
According to the daily diary of the case, the slides,
prepared inside the district hospital in Pulwama, were taken
to the residence of the doctor, questioned by the CBI, where
it was sealed and handed over to the FSL.
It may be mentioned that doctor in the first medical
team -- Nazia Hassan, had deposed before a one-man Justice Jan
Commission stating that she could not conduct examination of
vagina of the victims because of `rigor mortis` (stiffness in
the body after death).
The second lady doctor had stunned everyone by claiming
that she had been able to take the vaginal swab and also
prepare the slides for forensic examination.
Ahead of the CBI investigations, the state Government had
appointed Commission headed by Justice (retd) Muzzafar Jan.
Bodies of Neelofar and her sister-in-law Asiya were
recovered from a stream on May 30 after they went missing
in town the previous evening.
Bureau Report
