Custodial death: HC summons docs who conducted post-mortem

Bombay High Court on Thursday summoned doctors of the State-run J J Hospital, who conducted the post-mortem of a 22-year-old youth who died in police custody.

Bombay High Court on Thursday summoned doctors of the State-run J J Hospital, who conducted the post-mortem of a 22-year-old youth who died in police custody.

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The five doctors will have to be present before division bench of Justices Bilal Nazki and A R Joshi on Friday.

The direction came during hearing of petition filed by Mehrunnisa Shaikh, the mother of the deceased youth. Her son, Altaf, was picked up from his house in suburban Vikhroli on September 9, 2009 and was found dead next morning.

The police said he died of `drug overdose' while the post-mortem report revealed several injuries on his body.

An affidavit filed by assistant commissioner of police Prakash Wani said that PSI Sanjay Khedekar and others from Ghatkopar police station went to his house, in connection with a house-breaking case, and found him asleep.

So "they carried him in their arms, as a human gesture" and took him to police station in auto rickshaw. Since he did not wake up, he was laid on a mat, where he was found dead next morning, the affidavit said.

But public prosecutor P A Pol could not explain where or how did Shaikh get injuries, because when he was arrested, panchnama showed he had no injuries on his bodies.