Death in SDM’s office: Postmortem inconclusive,viscera to be sent to lab

The postmortem examination of Shailendra Pandey,who died after an alleged assault by Basti sub-divisional magistrate in his office on Monday,showed minor injuries on his body. Since the report could not ascertain the cause of death,the police decided to send the viscera to the Lucknow Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL).

Basti Range DIG Abhimanyu Tripathi said the agitators who were protesting against the incident handed over Pande’s body to the administration last night and the postmortem was conducted today. The postmortem report mentioned injuries on right side of Pande’s chest,head,shoulder and elbow,but these were not of a serious nature.

The DIG said the forensic report,the statement of eyewitnesses,the SDM and his office staff would help in the investigation.

Pandey had visited SDM Santosh Kumar Vaish requesting him to release his son’s motorcycle. Pandey died after the SDM hit him,his son Narendra has alleged. A case of culpable homicide and voluntarily causing hurt was registered against the SDM at the City Kotwali following the DIG’s intervention.