28 Aug 2021  |   06:26am IST

The forensics Dept needs to ask if it carried out Siddhi Naik’s autopsy and came to conclusions ethically

The forensics Dept needs to ask if it carried out Siddhi Naik’s autopsy and came to conclusions ethically

Sujay Gupta

When the doctor who carried out the autopsy in Siddhi Naik case (one is deliberately not naming names because the cause and direction is more important than specific finger pointing), he must have come to a stage where he had to make a crucial decision - whether to preserve the viscera of the victim the only organ which would allow detection of poison or drugs in her body. It is important for the department, the government and the family of the girl to know when and how that decision was taken.
What this graphically means is this (with absolute respect to the victim and the family). What were the factors which played in their minds when they had to decide whether to take out the viscera from the victim’s body and put it in jars for further forensic analysis? Or keep the organ in the body and handing it over to relatives for the last rites. They chose the latter.
Those in the autopsy and all those with a knowledge of forensic science will know why, understanding the logic - medical or otherwise - of such a decision is important.
What happened in that autopsy room is something that will stay in that room and hopefully the protocol to have some video evidence has been maintained to enable further learnings and notes for the future. However, the question that one does need an answer to is this. Was the final decision the correct one and if there was any doubt or a wavering before the final call not to preserve then why didn’t the HOD and his team take a call which allowed for a course correction later. After all, if no foul play was ultimately found, all they would have been a viscera which they didn’t need. But by not preserving it, they have no way of taking a relook at a sensitive and intriguing case.
That is one of the reasons why Herald and this columnist have focussed on viscera preservation issue because it is here that both the Forensics Department and the Goa police are vulnerable. And they are covering this vulnerability by pushing the narrative towards suicide so that the professional gaps in the conducting of the autopsy, if any, are not looked at. We have reported this. But there is a reason why this is alarming and that is what needs to be underlined. The underlying principles of any police investigation (as it is in life itself) are to use every experience as learning with past errors not committed again. While hindsight makes us wiser, there can be no benefit of hindsight if the unwise decisions are repeated.
It will be in the fitness of things if we look back at some past investigations and the errors made then. For the sake of greater clarity police lapses, are also highlighted. A sufficient part of this information has also been sent to the Chief Minister.
a.
April 1995: Vasanti Gawade (Madkaim) murder by Mahananda Naik at Bambolim Fulancho Khuris (Goa Velha police station)   
Her parents had lodged a missing complaint at Ponda Police station.
Police role: Vasanti Gawade’s cousin, Raghunath, had told the police that his sister was seen last time with the killer. Ponda police had actually arrested Mahanand after this but they had to release him after rickshaw operators from Ponda city led a morcha to the police station in support of Mahanand. If the police had interrogated him correctly, many lives of girls would have been saved.
Forensics role: Body of the girl (Vasanti) was found as of unknown person hanging to a tree at Bambolim. Doctors gave the cause of death as “hanging” but actually it was strangulation by Mahananda Naik, which he confessed later on.
b.
July 2002: Tanuja Naik Murder Case (Ponda Police Station) On July 15, 2002, 22-year-old Tanuja was shot dead by unknown persons at Caranzal-Marcaim when she was returning home. On August 7, 2006, the Crime Branch arrested Raju alias Rajinish Singh, 24, in connection with the case at Marcaim. The police claimed that the motive behind the crime was the robbery of a gold chain that Tanuja was wearing.   
Police role: In this case police were suspecting a local person and the entire investigation was focused on him for the next four years. In August 2006 a migrant labour confessed that he had killed her. The Court acquitted him giving him “benefit of the doubt” since the police investigations were not foolproof.
c.
March 2007    Murder of Deepali Dataram  Jotkar (22 years) at a railway tunnel in Fatorpa in 2007 by Mahanda Naik.
Family had been well acquainted with Mahanand and had even given him the contract to build a room adjacent to their house at Davorlim-Margao.
 Father Dattaram Jotkar had told Ponda police stating that his daughter, Deepali, before leaving her residence, had taken Rs 80,000 in cash and had worn jewellery worth Rs 1.75L. The parents had filed a missing complaint with Maina-Curtorim police but did not follow up on the case, as they were upset with Deepali for having taken the money and jewellery. Also, she had left a note behind stating that she would be leaving for Mumbai along with her boyfriend.
 Forensics role: Later, an unknown body was found in a semi-nude manner in a field near a tunnel with little water around. The doctor gave the cause of death as drowning in water, (just like the Siddhi Naik case) wherein the accused confessed that death was strangulation with dupatta.
Police role: Persistent interrogation led Mahanand to confess that he had murdered Deepali at a railway tunnel in Fatorpa in 2007 and another girl Bhagi at Borim in 2005.
d.
June 2003: Death of Anjana Shirodkar at Mapusa Police Station by throwing acid        
Two persons behind this murder (one of whom attempted suicide by consuming rattol) but later on, let them off. Crime has been undetected till today.
What do we learn from these cases?
Decisions taken in haste both by the police and the Forensics Department can lead to incorrect conclusions which can severely harm investigations. The role of the Forensics Department, as envisaged by Dr Jagmohan Sharma, the pioneer who set up Goa’s Forensics Department way back in 1969, making it one of the best in the country, was to be a partner with the police in the process of determining the actual cause of death beyond the medical technicalities. Along with the police, it is as much the role of the Forensics team to ascertain and advise whether a drowning case is accidental, suicidal or homicidal purely by examining the body and using years of experience to determine not just the immediate cause but the circumstances that finally led to the occurrence of death.
The police and the forensics department have a chance to start afresh. This is notwithstanding the damage that has already been done. But at the very least, if this is recorded as a murder investigation the police can step-up the questioning, and deep dive into electronic and other trails for a 360-degree professional look at the case, even with the severe limitation of the viscera not being there.
But it will all start with a more detailed expert opinion about the state of the body when found. This is where the role of Forensics will come in. We simply do not seem to have the best analysis of the clues visible on the body when it was found. And the picture available is fairly detailed and needs a re-look.
Both the wings- Forensics and the police have reasons beyond the case to deliver justice in this case.
a) For Forensics: Late Dr Jagmohan Sharma was in GMC between 1969 and 1982. Goa’s first state of the art autopsy facilities and trained doctors were his contribution. From Rajasthan, he made Goa his home and he is literally worshipped by the forensic fraternity.
But the cruel irony of fate struck. Just after the autopsy centre was inaugurated, he was to conduct an internal medical test and had invited outstation examiner doctors. He picked them personally from the airport and was on his way back to GMC when his car crashed against the Zuari bridge and Dr Sharma lost his life. Others were saved.
His body was the second autopsy conducted in the very autopsy centre he had created with his own hands
Let the Forensics team ask themselves. Would Dr Jagmohan Sharma been satisfied with the manner in which Siddhi Naik’s autopsy was done? Because his mantra always was that Forensics is effective only if it plays a part in giving justice to those who have died unnaturally, especially those whose lives were taken.
Moreover, the Forensics Department of Goa, because of the legacy of Dr Sharma and many stalwarts afire that, has attained respect, which has from time to time been tarnished. But its successes have outscored its failures. In the Siddhi Naik case too, it has an opportunity to course-correct, which it should not let go, because one believes that their decisions with regard to the case were not malafide.
b)  For the police: Let the memory and honour of one father be the reason for justice for another father
The PI of Calangute police station, Nolasco Raposo, had to go on leave after the Siddhi Naik death case broke due to the loss of his own father. Incidentally his late father also served as the Inspector of the Calangute police station. Raposo, a grieving son, one believes, would like to give full justice to the grieving father of Siddhi Naik, as well as her family. At the same time, he would want to make his father later proud of his investigative work.
Let him keep no stone unturned, even if it means going against those in the force with an active and clear interest to close this case as a suicide, for the cause of justice to a grieving family.
After all, beneath each and every death, lies a deep and sad human story. A story witnessed and borne by those who survive by dying a thousand deaths.

Sujay Gupta is the Consulting Editor Herald Publications and tweets @sujaygupta0832

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