Twenty-seven years after Hashimpura massacre during communal riots in UP’s Meerut district, a Delhi court on Tuesday examined the last prosecution witness in the case and will now start hearing final arguments. Prosecution witness Dr Subodh Tyagi was ‘recalled’ by the court Tuesday and ‘further’ examined in the case. Dr Tyagi was working as a medical officer at SVBP Hospital in Meerut in May 1987 when the alleged incident took place. According to the prosecutor, it is alleged that Leela Dhar, PAC constable, had admitted himself in the SVBP Hospital on 23 May, 1987 when he sustained an eye injury during the alleged incident when 19 accused PAC constables took about fifty muslim labourers in a van from Hashimpura Mohalla in Meerut to the Upper Ganga canal in Murad Nagar, Ghaziabad, and allegedly shot them. The doctor was recalled to examine the original documents which contained entries made by the hospital officials of the constable’s admission. “These documents were not recorded. The UP officials had not even forwarded photocopies. This is why the doctor has been called to examine the original documents,” said Senior Public Prosecutor Satish Tamta. On Tuesday, the store keeper of the record room of SBVP Hospital, Meerut produced the original casualty admission register and the original accident register that contained the entries made by the hospital of ‘patient’ Leela Dhar. “I have seen the above mentioned original accident register. The page 76, pertaining to the patient is in my handwriting and the copy of the same bears my signature,” Subodh Tyagi said. Subodh Tyagi told the court that he gave the inquiry report as a general medical officer and not as an ‘eye’ specialist. “Although the patient was referred to a eye surgeon. I am not aware if any report was received subsequently from the eye specialist,” he said.
