SIT to exhume Anis Khan’s body for post-mortem

Experts will be able to identify the nature of external injury marks better and that will throw up important leads , said PK Ghosh, former head of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory in Calcutta

Anis Khan.: File photo

Kinsuk Basu   |   TT  |  Calcutta   |   25.02.22  :  The Special Investigation Team probing into Anis Khan’s death has decided to complete the exhumation of the body and its subsequent post-mortem at the earliest after Calcutta High Court admitted an appeal from the state for the same on Thursday.

Senior officers met the members of the SIT at Bhabani Bhavan on Thursday evening to discuss the modalities of the exhumation and the subsequent autopsy, which will have to be carried out under the supervision of the Howrah district judge according to the high court’s order.

The body will be disinterred following conditions laid down in the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and a team of three senior doctors will conduct the post-mortem, senior officers said.

Primarily, it has been decided that prior to the actual process of exhumation, the area where the body of the 27-year-old former student of Aliah University lies buried in Howrah’s Amta, will be cordoned off with a battery of police contingent and senior officers from Howrah police will be posted to ensure there were no law and order issues.

“Since this appears to be a case of fall from height it is better if a body is exhumed at the earliest. Experts will be able to identify the nature of external injury marks better and that will throw up important leads including whether the body had hit something during the fall from height or not," said PK Ghosh, a senior forensic expert and former head of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory in Calcutta, who is not connected with the case.

"The viscera will also hold many vital leads," he added.

Anis's family members, who said they were not happy with the high court order, questioned the SIT's probe after two arrested police personnel — home guard Kashinath Bera and civic volunteer Pritam Bhattacharya -- said they had gone to the student-activist's house on the fateful night following an order of the officer-in-charge (OC) of the Amta police station.

"We went under orders from the OC. We know nothing about how Anis died. We are being made sacrificial goats," the two said on their way to Uluberia court in a police van on Thursday.

The court later remanded the two to 14 days of judicial custody.

Earlier in the day, the SIT questioned four police personnel including the duty officer who was at the Amta police station on Friday night along with three other civic volunteers. Officers said the idea was to find out the exact role of all these personnel when Anis’s father had called up the police station to say his son was lying dead in front of his house.

Anis’s father Salam Khan visited the police station with six others during the day demanding arrest of the real criminals responsible for his son's death.

The officer-in-charge of Amta police station, Debabrata Chakraborty, was sent on indefinite leave late on Thursday.

The SIT also went to the home of Anis and recorded the statement of his father.