Alleged anomaly in X-ray: HC seeks UP hospital stand

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Friday sought response from a district hospital in Uttar Pradesh, which conducted a post-mortem on the 25-year-old farmer who died after his tractor overturned during the farmers' protest rally on Republic Day last year, on a plea alleging that there is an "apparent anomaly" in the X-ray plates of the deceased.

Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar, while dealing with an application by the deceased's grandfather who has filed the petition for court-monitored SIT probe into the death, also sought the stand of the Uttar Pradesh police and Delhi police.

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The judge asked the advocate for the petitioner to supply a copy of the application to the counsel for the Uttar Pradesh officials and said "reply, if any, be filed in four weeks" and posted the matter for the next hearing on May 11.

In the application, the petitioner, represented by lawyers Vrinda Grover and Soutik Banerjee, alleged that the X-ray plates have "not been prepared as per usual practice" which casts a serious doubt concerning their sanctity.

The plea said that it is emphasised that the X-ray reports are crucial in determining whether the deceased suffered any firearm injury as the X-ray plates can reveal not only the presence of any partial or broken fragment of the bullet but also provide insight into the path of the bullet.

The application stated that the post-mortem report made no mention if the X-ray was done prior to the post-mortem and no reference is made to the same by the doctor before providing his opinion with regard to the cause of death.

"The X-ray plates have evidently not been prepared as per usual practice, and writing the name of the deceased by hand on an already prepared X-ray plate inspires no confidence and raises serious doubts as to the genuineness and sanctity of the said X-ray plates," said the application which has sought to know from the UP district hospital as to who wrote the name and details of deceased on the X-ray plates, when and how.

The petitioner thus argued that the fact that the Delhi police took no action in spite of the apparent anomaly "points towards a mechanical and aimless investigation" in the present case.

"The above circumstances also point towards a mechanical and aimless investigation being carried out in the present case by the Respondent No. 1 (Delhi police), who has not taken any steps or action despite the apparent anomaly in the X-ray plates seized by them from Respondent No. 4 (CMO). Such a lackadaisical, directionless and unprofessional investigation can never yield the truth, and this is yet another instance where the investigation has failed to inspire confidence," the application stated.

In the petition, the deceased Navreet Singh's grandfather — Hardeep Singh, has claimed that the victim suffered gunshot injuries to his head. His post mortem was conducted at Rampur district hospital in Uttar Pradesh.

However, both the Delhi and Uttar Pradesh Police have stated that Navreet Singh did not suffer any gunshot wounds.

Delhi Police had earlier relied upon the footage collected from CCTV cameras located at the site — Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg — where the young farmer died and said that he was driving the tractor at high speed and the vehicle overturned after hitting the barricades.

It had said that the footage also shows that the police personnel was running away for safety from the speeding tractor and that none of them fired upon the vehicle or the driver. Delhi Police had also said that CCTV footage further indicated that the protestors did not take the injured Navreet Singh to any nearby hospital and instead they attacked the ambulances that reached the site after hearing about the accident.

It had said that the protestors kept his body on the road for five hours and then spread rumours that he was killed in police firing.

The petitioner's counsel had earlier contended that the way Delhi Police has conducted itself in the matter "does not inspire a shred of confidence".

Grover had argued that this indicated that the victim lost control of the tractor and it overturned as he was shot by the police personnel.

According to the police, the man had died as his tractor overturned at ITO where many farmers participating in the tractor parade had reached from the Ghazipur border after taking a detour off the pre-agreed route for the march.

The police had claimed that the man was driving the tractor and he came under the vehicle as it overturned.

In April last year, the court had granted time to the petitioner to seek the opinion of experts on the deceased's post mortem and X-Ray reports.

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