KARACHI: Experts and officials of the medico-legal section of the health department in Karachi have raised doubts over the initial autopsy report of Nimirta Amarta Mirchandani, questioning the authenticity of the details of her examination.

They believed that the report carried many flaws and missed key facts.

They said that the ligature mark in picture was not due to a dupatta.

“It was some rope material,” said a senior official in medico-legal section, who wished not to be named.

“The post-mortem findings show suicide but ligature mark shows strangulation,” said the expert.

In the post-mortem report, time between death and post-mortem was 11-12 hours but the picture appeared to be about 24 hours old because decomposition signs had developed.

The experts said that no comments had been mentioned in the post-mortem report conducted in Larkana about decomposition. Instead, it has been mentioned in the report that the condition of the body was “fresh”.

The experts said it was also questionable as to how a five-feet-tall girl managed to hang herself from the ceiling fan, which was 15 feet high.

Official sources in the medico-legal section of health department said that it would be more appropriate if a proper medical board had been constituted to conduct an autopsy of the student in Larkana or her body should have been shifted to Karachi for a post-mortem examination.

The sources said it had been observed that proper medico-legal doctors were not available in other parts of Sindh.

They revealed that a committee had been working to bring reforms in the medico-legal section across Sindh and develop a pro forma for the whole province to conduct a post-mortem examination.

The post-mortem report of the student obtained by Dawn showed that her cause of death has been “reserved till the reports from histopathology, chemical and radiological may [be] reached”.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2019