Salman Khan house firing: High Court fumes over 'incomplete' autopsy into accused’s ‘custodial death’
Salman Khan house firing: The Bombay High Court slammed the "incomplete" autopsy report of Anuj Thapan, who was arrested in connection with a shooting outside actor Salman Khan's house and died in police custody.
A vacation bench of Justices N R Borkar and Somasekhar Sundaresan reviewed the post-mortem report and stated that it lacks critical details such as a diagram of the ligature mark seen on the deceased's neck and whether there were any other injuries on the body.
The bench was hearing a petition submitted by Rita Devi, the mother of accused Anuj Thapan, who died on May 1 in the toilet of the Mumbai police's crime branch lockup.
While the police claim Thapan killed himself, his mother Rita Devi filed a plea in the high court on May 3 alleging foul play and claiming he was killed. Devi petitioned the High Court to direct the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate her son's death.
The petition claimed that Thapan was physically assaulted and tortured by police while in jail.
On Wednesday, additional public prosecutor Jayesh Yagnik submitted a preliminary report on the state CID's investigation into Thapan's death and also submitted the postmortem report.
The court analysed it and determined that, according to the report, the cause of death was asphyxiation, but certain other information was absent.
"Where is the diagram of the ligature mark? Is the ligature mark oblique in shape or round? Death by asphyxiation can also be because of strangling. It need not be because of hanging only," the court said, adding that the report also lacks a column giving details of whether there were any other injuries on the deceased's body.
"This is not a complete post-mortem report. It is incomplete," it added.
- With inputs from agencies
