Shopian case: Probe against doctors

Srinagar: After the Aarushi Talwar case, it's now the Shopian double deaths where the role of the forensic doctors is being questioned. How serious were the lapses - an NDTV report details how mistakes were committed at every step.

On May 30, when Aasiya and Niloufer's bodies washed up in Shopian, the mob was in no rational mood. In fact, the first team of doctors conducting the post mortem was even assaulted by the mob. That was when they cited inexperience to conduct tests and Dr Maqbool, Dr Ghulam Qadir and Dr Nighat Shaheen were brought in from the Pulwama hospital.

But now, the post-mortem conducted by the three doctors is under the scanner. Dr Nighat Shaheen's report states that 17- year old Aasiya's "hymen was torn to rags." This despite the fact, that the latest exhumation by AIIMS and local doctors has extracted the hymen.

Dr Shaheen's team also calls the cause of Niloufer's death 'Neurogenic shock' or brain failure but experts say this doesn't mean anything.

Dr Shaheen forgot to prepare slides of her examination. When she was asked about it a day later, she extracted other medical waste, which led to the wrong conclusion of rape.

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That team's report also reported wrong injuries on Aasiya that couldn't be seen by the AIIMS team. For instance, the report pointed out that Aasiya's nose was smashed.

Jammu and Kashmir Health Minister, Shyam Lal, says, "Jammu and Kashmir government orders departmental inquiry against the doctors who fudged the samples in Shopian rape and murder case."

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Insiders say it is not unusual to have totally incompetent forensic teams but in the Shopian case they are not ruling out some kind of mala fide intention on the doctors' part.

Apparently, even though the contrary is very obvious to medical experts, Dr Nighat Shaheen still stands by her medical assessment that Aasiya was raped but she is refusing to respond to any queries.