When forensics fail the system

CHENNAI: The Chengalpattu district police began the New Year with a sensational arrest of a man who murdered another and staged it as his own death for Rs 1 crore insurance money. And he almost got away with it. He’s now in prison, not because the trained professionals – police and doctors who conducted the post-mortem – followed procedure and unearthed the conspiracy by scientific means as they should have.

But for the victim’s elder brother – an AC mechanic who persevered for 3 months and knocked on the court doors to ensure that police acted on his family’s missing complaint – the murderer would have gotten away with it.

“This case should not be used as an example to highlight blood ties or human perseverance. It’s a huge embarrassment for professionals in the police department and forensic medicine, as they were hoodwinked by a layman,” said an official with the Forensic Medicine Department (FMD).

The Case:

The elder brother, H Pazhani, was not even on talking terms with the victim Dilli Babu (39) when the latter went missing. The accused, J Suresh (38), a gym trainer in Chennai, rekindled his friendship with Babu of Ernavoor after 10 years, only to murder him and pass it off as his own death for the insurance amount.

Suresh’s morbid plan eventually amounted to nothing as the insurance claim did not go through, as the death was suspected to be a suicide.

While the murder happened in September 2023, three suspects, including Suresh, were arrested on January 1 by the Orathy Police. Babu had left home on September 15 and never returned, after which his family filed a missing complaint with Ennore police.

Around the same time, Orathy police in Chengalpattu had registered a case under Section 174 Cr PC (suspicious death) on September 16 based on a complaint from Suresh’s elder sister, Mariya Jayasri, of Ayanavaram.

In the FIR, she stated that her brother was staying at a thatched roof hut in their plot in Allanur village for the last three months and that there was a fire accident due to a short circuit. “The dead person is my brother. I have no suspicions in his death,” the FIR quoted Maria.

All that remained was the charred body of a man and the police took the word of Suresh’s family and handed over the body to them for the final rites.

Pazhani, meanwhile, approached the Madras HC with a habeas corpus petition to direct the Ennore police to find his brother. “Our directive was to find Babu. During the investigation, we got information about Suresh being alive after which we alerted the Chengalpattu police about a possible murder angle,” an officer with Ennore police said.

When DT Next met Pazhani regarding his comments on the case, he refused to dwell much on it. “As long as I have strength, I will pursue the case legally,” he said.

Explaining the chinks that led to Pazhani going through the time-consuming ordeal of knocking on court’s doors, a police official said, “A mobile forensic lab team should have visited the crime scene to identify the source of the fire. Since the body was burnt beyond recognition, a request for an autopsy should have been submitted to know the identity of the dead person.”

Autopsy by a student:

DT Next, through sources at Chengalpattu Medical College Hospital, confirmed that the autopsy was performed by a post-graduate student and not by forensic doctors.

“This is a contravention as there is no uniform procedure followed across the State in assigning PG students for an autopsy. Some heads of the department, like in Tirunelveli Medical College do not allow it while those in Chennai and Chengalpattu do,” said a source.

Top officials in the Directorate of Medical Education under whom the FMD comes, added that students were allowed to do autopsies. “But, an assistant or associate professor would oversee the procedure while students do it. The certificate will be signed by the Forensic Medical Officer,” the official said.

However, in the Orathy case, the certificate had the signature of the PG doctor, Dr Harish Sreethu. A medical officer in Chengalpattu Medical College said that no autopsy doctor was present in the room.

When asked about this, Dr J Sangumani, DME, said that CCTVs in the autopsy halls could verify the claim. “It’s exactly to avoid this kind of mistake and embarrassment that there is a standard operating procedure (SOP) in place. Because one family member persevered, the truth came out. Not everyone will have the strength and will to do the same,” opined an FMD official.

Another doctor wondered? “Will orthopaedics be allowed to operate on the heart? Then why are PG doctors allowed to do an autopsy in the name of experience?”

Not following procedure:

The Chengalpattu district police too were duped by Suresh. According to the SOP, the police are required to alert the teams in Forensic Science Labs to collect samples to know about the source of fuel for the fire and also to ascertain the identity in case of an unidentified body.

“In any case of suspicious death, we usually go for a detailed post-mortem. Even in this case, if the body was unclaimed, we might have done that, but the mother and sister claimed the body as a family member. Plus, it was found on their land. So, our personnel did not suspect anything amiss,” said a senior police officer in Chengalpattu. “So, it can be said that Ennore police too did not act soon on the missing complaint.”

But this is not the first time an autopsy was conducted in the absence of an authorised person. In an abetment to suicide case (2021), Sessions Judge at Mahila court Chennai, reprimanded a doctor for giving his final opinion on the autopsy certificate without seeing the body. “It’s highly deplorable and unethical for the HoD of a government medical institution to have issued the final opinion without even examining the body. It not only questions the faith and confidence the criminal judicial administrative system imposes on the forensic medical evidence, it also jeopardises the reliability in the justice delivery system,” Judge Mohammed Farooq said about Dr Murugesan, who was the HoD at Kilpauk Medical College hospital. Terming his act a serious and unpardonable dereliction of duty, and that he made a travesty of the medical forensic system, the court recommended disciplinary action against him.

Sources said that no action was taken against Dr Murugesan. He is presently the HoD at Chengalpattu Medical College Hospital. However, nothing highlights the fiefdom that is the Department of Forensic Medicine than the case of a doctor who was convicted by a CBI court in Madurai continuing in the department and issuing autopsy certificates.

3 years after HC order, DME yet to appoint scientific officers

In September 2020, the Madras High Court’s Madurai bench issued a charter of directions to the Directorate of Medical Education including the appointment of scientific officers across the State and adopting the web-based system MedleaPR to ensure post-mortem certificates are issued effectively.

This directive came immediately after it was proved in court that in Madurai Government Hospital, a cut-copy-paste method was used to issue at least 57 post-mortem certificates among many other shortcomings.

Court’s directive:

A division bench of Justices N Kirubakaran and SS Sundar, in its order, highlighted the importance of post-mortem doctors in ensuring justice. “In most of the medico-legal cases, the outcome of a criminal case depends upon the findings in an autopsy certificate. If the autopsy reports are prepared in such a shabby and unscientific manner, and that too without an actual performance of autopsies by doctors, it will lead to collapse of the criminal justice delivery system in this country.”

Observing that the doctors too aid in the delivery of justice in medico-legal cases, the HC held that corrective measures have to be taken to prevent criminals from escaping the law due to the negligence and deliberate failure on the part of doctors doing post-mortems.

One of the directives was the appointment of Scientific Officers (SO) within a year. The order directed the State government to constitute a committee of experts within 6 months, and also define the qualifications, duties and responsibilities of an SO and ‘make the appointments’ within one year.

DT Next has learnt that the Health and Family Welfare department formed a 7-member committee to examine the ‘feasibility’ of appointing an SO in Government Medical College Hospitals in Tamil Nadu. It comprises five doctors, who had, unsurprisingly, suggested against the appointment of an SO.

Why the resistance?

A possible reason for the resistance in appointing SOs, sources said, is because of the deposition by the serving SOs before the HC where they pointed out the shortcomings in the department, so much so that the court warned the officials of the department not to exhibit any vindictiveness towards them. Media reports stated that one of the SOs was assaulted by PG students at Stanley Medical College.

At present, there are only 3 SOs in Tamil Nadu, one of whom is nearing retirement age. The SO’s ascribed responsibilities include assisting the medical officers in conducting medico-legal autopsies and bone cases, age estimation, coordinating all matters of criminology and medical courses, and liaising with the police and public on official matters.

Candidates with an MA in Criminology and Forensic Science can be appointed as scientific assistants in the Forensic Medicine Department. The course was first offered in Madras Medical College as a diploma in the 1960s. It’s now offered as a degree course in the University of Madras.

When DT Next visited DME J Sangumani’s office to enquire why the appointments were still not made, a deputy of the DME said that it was still under consideration, and that “such a posting is not available anywhere else in the country and would be unnecessary too”, a stance which they iterated before the HC too. “From mid-day meal schemes to All Women Police Stations, Tamil Nadu has been a pioneer in several schemes and so is the appointment of scientific officers. So, for the doctors to cite the ‘national norm’ as a reason is disappointing to say the least,” said a source.

K Chockalingam, former Vice Chancellor, Manonmaniyam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli, also the first HoD of the MA Criminology at University of Madras, pointed out that the course was started by forensic medicine veterans like Dr CB Gopalakrishnan (police surgeon for Alavandar murder case). “What’s unique about the course is that students would have studied all the subjects in criminology and have a wide perspective on the phenomenon of crime itself. Such qualified assistants can be of immense value. I feel that it has been underscored, and now reiterated by the High Court. It’s fair that the appointments should continue,” he said. “Medical examiners are the experts but SOs are trained to understand the psychology and sociology of crime and have a holistic vision, which can help in resolving medico-legal cases.”

MedleaPR not implemented:

The Medical Legal Examination and Post Mortem Reports system is a web-based reporting system for filing post-mortem reports. It was developed by the National Informatics Centre, and is being used in Punjab and Haryana, but it’s yet to be implemented in Tamil Nadu despite a High Court direction to use it by the beginning of January 2021.

With the MedleaPR, autopsy doctors will be required to fill the reports meticulously. When asked about the delay, a deputy in DME Sangumani’s office said that it was in the trial stages.

The court’s direction to adopt a fool-proof web-based system was made after documents were submitted before the court that showed one doctor conducting more than 10 autopsies in a single day, which the court noted as impossible. “This fortifies the allegations that doctors were not conducting autopsies in a scientific manner. Even in their affidavit, the department has stated that a post-mortem ranges between 1-3 hours,” the court had noted.

Experts say that the Forensic Medicine Department is opaque in its functioning with “no accountability and only the High Court’s serious intervention is likely to bring reforms in the functioning”.