NEET aspirant’s death: Family alleges ‘cover-up’ by police, IG takes over probe

The case was on Saturday handed over to IG (Central Range) Jitendra Rana under the monitoring of the police headquarters after the autopsy conducted at the Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH) found evidence of ‘sexual assault’

The death of a NEET aspirant in a Patna hospital after she was allegedly “sexually assaulted” in a private hostel has raised a lot of questions about how cases of such nature are handled by hostel owners, the police and even the hospitals. In this case, despite victim’s family insisting on and requesting a probe about “foul play”, the police was trying to pass it off as a case of “suicide” to cover up any angle of unnatural death without waiting for the post mortem report.

NEET aspirant’s death: Family alleges ‘cover-up’ by police, IG takes over probe

The case was on Saturday handed over to IG (Central Range) Jitendra Rana under the monitoring of the police headquarters after the autopsy conducted at the Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH) found evidence of sexual assault on January 14. Though the PMCH is the apex body under the Bihar government for medico-legal cases, the report was sent to AIIMS Patna for another opinion, which is awaited.

The girl was found unconscious in the Shambhu Hostel of Patna on January 6. She was taken to a private hospital by the hostel owner and she died there on January 11. The family members of the girls say they were informed on the night of January 6, when the girl was already admitted in a private hospital. They allege that they were kept in the dark about the trail of treatment and what exactly happened to her.

“She was first taken to Dr Sahajanand Hospital, from where she was referred to Prabhat Memorial Hospital and the hostel owners had admitted her there. Once her condition deteriorated, the desperate family on January 10 shifted her to the Medanta Hospital where she breathed her last on January 11,” a family member told HT.

The family alleged that neither the police nor the hospitals bothered to properly fulfil medico-legal requirements. The family says that instead of probing her death, the police tried to term it a case of suicide.

“The police showed haste in trying to declare it a case of suicide as they claimed to have found around 90 sleeping pills from her room,” said the family, pointing to what they feel are apparent discrepancies in the sensitive case.

The deceased’s maternal uncle, talking to HT, said, “Is it possible that any person -- young or old -- can purchase 90 sleeping pills even after a doctor prescription?”

He said that it was possible that pills were gulped down her throat forcibly, but the entire blame was conveniently put on the victim.

The police, according to family, also trusted statements of private hospital doctors that she died of a sleeping pill overdose. The SSP had said that the doctor at the private hospital gave the opinion. However, it was contradicted by the PMCH’s postmortem report conducted by a medical board.

The police came to know of the incident only three days after the incident, as the private hospital and hostel did not even give preliminary information to the nearby police station, which should have been done first if there was any suspicion of “unnatural death” and even drug overdose cases go into the category of medico-legal case, said a senior police official, who did not want to be quoted.

The post-mortem of the girl took place six days after the girl’s hospitalisation, as the police got to know of the incident on January 9 and the girl died on January 11, the SSP said.

The postmortem report confirmed signs of “violent resistance, sexual assault, and injuries sustained”. It revealed fresh injuries, tissue trauma, and blood clot in the private parts, which happens in case of forced intercourse. She battled for it in three different hospitals for five days and succumbed on January 11.

“The postmortem report has made it clear that this is not a case of sudden deterioration of health or suicide, but the result of prolonged brutality and sexual violence, which gets corroborated by the fact that the girl survived for five days after the incident despite being shifted from one private hospital to another. Perhaps, she would have survived the trauma had there been no attempt to cover up and she would have been provided proper treatment,” said the victim’s maternal uncle.

According to reports, the student resisted the brutality inflicted upon her for about one and a half to two hours, which again gets corroborated by multiple and spread out scratch marks on her chest and under her shoulders, as per the postmortem report.

At the end of the report, it is clarified that all the facts found are consistent with “sexual violence”. The viscera has been preserved and sent to FSL for further investigation to ascertain the final cause of death.

“After the postmortem report from the PMCH, the probe will now focus on all possible angles. An SIT has already been formed,” said the SSP.

Meanwhile, the additional director general of Weaker Section (CID) Amit Kumar Jain, central range IG Jitendra Rana along with senior SP, city SP (east) visited hostel premises as well as private hospital, scanned CCTV footage and recorded the statements of some of them. The SIT, a police officer said, will use these details as inputs for its investigation that will conclude soon.