Kirpal Singh cremated, but cause of his death in Pakistani jail not established yet

Amritsar: Indian prisoner Kirpal Singh, who died under suspicious circumstances in a Lahore jail last week, was cremated at his native village in Gurdaspur district on Wednesday.

Kirpal Singh's body was handed over to the Border Security Force at the Attari-Wagah joint check post on Tuesday. Albeit his family members alleged that his body bore injury marks and foul play led to his death, but doctors who conducted an autopsy denied this.

Gurdaspur is about 220 km from Chandigarh.

Alleging foul play in his death, Kirpal's family members said the body bore injury and blood marks.

Contrary to the claims, the medical board which conducted the post-mortem examination here after his body was brought back to India on Tuesday, said there were no external or internal injury marks on the body.

Ashok Sharma, head of the three-member medical board, however, told the media after the post-mortem examination that the cause of death has not been established yet.

The doctor said some organs from his body were missing, as an autopsy has already been done (in Pakistan).

"In the post-mortem examination, it was found that there was no external or internal injury on the body. Post-mortem of this body has already been done (in Pakistan) because stitches were present on the body and the head.”

"When we opened the body, we found that some of the organs were missing because when post-mortem is done, some organs are taken to test to find out whether there is any disease or not," Sharma said.

"... rest of the organs which were present, we took out portions of those organs and we sent them for testing (to know) about diseases as well as poisoning. I can say with 100 percent accuracy that the wound marks which are inflicted during life, they cannot be removed. The cause of death has not been established yet," the doctor added.

Pakistani authorities have attributed his death to heart attack, but his family has alleged he was murdered in prison.

Kirpal Singh, the family has maintained, had inadvertently crossed into Pakistan and was arrested and charged with spying by Pakistani authorities.

Kirpal Singh, a former serviceman, was lodged in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat prison since 1992. He died on April 11.

Pakistani authorities had labelled him a spy and got him convicted for terror attacks inside Pakistan. He was initially sentenced to death which was later converted to 20 years' imprisonment.

(With IANS inputs)