MARGAO, JUNE 1
Making a humble appeal to everyone to leave the family alone after having suffered torture in the last 15 days, the family of deceased Nadia Torrado has asserted that they neither suspect foul play nor suspect any person behind her death.
Coming down heavily on the police for harassment and taking Nadia’s body for the second post mortem examination just an hour before the funeral, the family maintained that Nadia’s death was not suicidal and the death occurred after she mistakenly consumed the poisonous substance.
The family has lodged a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission against the police for meting out harassment. “We are totally harassed on all sides by different people, who keep coming at odd times at night even at 1 am and 3 am. Today was supposed to be my daughter’s funeral at 10 am. Armed police came and took away the body without explaining the reason for the second post mortem. We were told that the autopsy performed at Chennai was enough”, said Nadia’s mother, Sonia.
“Please leave us alone. We have suffered enough in the last 15 days of absolute torture”, Sonia said, while appealing to the authorities to allow her daughter’s funeral.
Nadia’s brother Rommel said the family wanted to have the post mortem in Goa, but PSI Suraj Samant and the Chennai hospital authorities said the autopsy needs to be carried out in Chennai itself. “We came with the body to Goa at 3.30 pm. We were summoned by the police at 8 pm. We were allowed to have the funeral today, but at around 3.15 am today, the police came with summons to report this morning at the police station. The police took the body for post mortem for the second time just because Auda Viegas complaint without knowing about the history of the case and to make it a political issue”, Rommel said, adding ‘around 300 people who came for the funeral this morning went back. We could not even bury out sister in peace”.
Claiming that the police are being asked by some higher authorities to mete out the harassment, he said “we told the SDM that there is no foul play behind Nadia’s death. I and my brother, besides Nadia’s husband Winston Barretto gave a statement that there is no foul play, but they went ahead with the second autopsy”.
Nadia’s brother Cunard said that his sister has not committed suicide, adding that she has already given a statement that she had mistakenly consumed the poisonous substance.
Family lawyer, Adv Radharao Gracias said the family fails to understand the reason for the second autopsy. “The government thinks there is a abettor. Will this be established by a second autopsy”, he asked, adding an autopsy report will only show the cause of death and not the motive or the abettor. “In this case, who suspects what, we do not know. If the government wants to settle scores with a minister, please do so, but don’t implicate this family”, he said, adding that the government is free to investigate the role of any minister, but not at he cost of the family and by traumatising this family.
When newsmen said the second post mortem report was ordered following complaints by NGOs, Radharao shot back “my feeling is that NGOs are being used by the government to create grounds for a second autopsy”.
A local resident Dr Mavis Faleiro lashed out at the BJP leader Rajendra Arlekar for making wild and baseless allegations that the deceased was raped and was pregnant. “Arlekar is nobody to judge. An ultrasound done on Nadia after she was admitted in the hospital showed there was no foetus in her uterus. Despite this, we fail to understand on what grounds are these people making such baseless allegations”, she added.
