Court asks board to exhume the body and have the remains sent to the Punjab Forensic Laboratory. PHOTO: FILE
The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has ordered a second autopsy on the woman killed at the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) on Monday night.
The court said an independent medical board comprising senior doctors should conduct the autopsy. It further told the board to exhume the body and have the remains sent to the Punjab Forensic Laboratory.
The bench said the initial autopsy did not cover all angles, adding the brutality of the act had terrorised the healthcare institution.
PHC Chief Justice (CJ) Dost Muhammad Khan ordered police officials to step-up investigations into the incident. “We do not doubt the autopsy, but there was negligence in conducting it and the victim’s blood was not tested for intoxication,” CJ Khan said, adding the motives of the killers were not clear either. Head of Forensic Science and Toxicology, Dr Hakim Afridi, informed the court the girl was killed with a knife which was found in her neck. He claimed samples collected from her stomach proved the victim had not been poisoned. “There was no evidence of strangulation and the girl’s jugular vein was cut with a knife, after which the culprits burnt her body,” Afridi explained.
The chief executive of the hospital, Dr Arshad Javed, submitted a report and CCTV footage which showed the murder was committed in the Accident and Emergency Department’s main hall, after which the body was dumped in a nearby toilet. Javed said the victim, Noor Bibi, was admitted to the hospital at the time.
Aurangzeb, the deceased girl’s husband, informed the court he had been married to Noor for four years and they had a good relationship. On the day of her death, Noor had left home alone to visit her mother. Aurangzeb gave the court permission to exhume his wife’s body, saying he wanted the killers arrested. The court also ordered Bala Hissar Fort in-charge to provide CCTV footage to the investigation team in order to help determine the identities of those responsible and adjourned the case until April 10.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 29th, 2013.
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