Delhi gangrape accused Ram Singh quietly cremated by kin

Taking note of Singh’s death,the National Human Rights Commission asked its Director General (Investigation) to collect facts and requisite reports within eight weeks. The NHRC was informed about the death by the Superintendent of Jail No. 3 who said the undertrial was found hanging and was declared dead at 5.45 am Monday by the Tihar medical officer.

On Tuesday,the post-mortem examination started at 11 am after Singh’s brother and parents reached the AIIMS mortuary. It got over at 12.30 pm.

“The cause of death is hanging. Singh’s body had a ligature mark on the neck. There were no ante-mortem external marks or internal injuries. We have also sent a part of Singh’s body tissues to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) to rule out the possibility that he may have been poisoned,” Dr Sanjeev Lalwani,who conducted the post-mortem examination,said.

The post-mortem was carried out by a board of medical experts led by Dr D N Bhardwaj of the Department of Forensic Medicine,AIIMS. Dr Lalwani and a resident doctor were part of the panel.

Earlier,Dr Bhardwaj told Newsline that the post-mortem examination would reveal the truth — Singh’s family had alleged that he was murdered. The doctors looked for external bruise marks or internal injuries that Singh may have suffered. They also looked at the extent of dysfunction of his arms — Singh’s family claimed that the right arm did not work at all ever since an accident three years ago and the left had a metallic rod inserted in it.

“Only doctors from AIIMS are part of the medical board. We have sufficient expertise to carry out this post-mortem and will submit our report to the judge,” Dr Bhardwaj said.

Meanwhile,Tihar jail authorities on Tuesday informed the fast track court hearing the gangrape case that an investigation into Singh’s death was underway and a report,detailing the inquest and investigation,would be submitted to the court in a day or two.

The court also passed an order for abatement of trial against Singh. The trial will now proceed against the remaining four accused. Proceedings of cross-examination of witnesses and other proceedings on behalf of Singh will no longer be held. He will be mentioned in the final judgment as the ‘deceased’ accused.