CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday asked the PGIMER to conduct a second post-mortem of alleged gangster Jaipal Singh Bhullar, shot dead by Kolkata police there recently.
Justice Avneesh Jhingan also asked the PGIEMR to constitute a board to supervise the second autopsy, which, he said, should be conducted either at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh or AIIMS, Delhi, or some other independent medical institute.
The judge ordered the second autopsy and asked the PGIMER to ascertain exact details of the injuries on Bhullar's body on a plea by his father Bhupinder Singh.
Bhullar and his associate Jaspreet Singh, allegedly involved in killing two policemen recently in a grain market near Ludhiana, were gunned down by a Kolkata police team in a shootout on June 9.
Bhullar and Jaspreet were shot dead by a Special Task Force team of the Kolkata police on "pin-pointed" information of the Punjab Police about the gangsters' hideout in a housing society in the New Town area of the city.
Justice Jhingan ordered Bhullar's second autopsy "ignoring the technicalities and considering the nature of the relief sought and noting that body of the petitioner's son has been lying at his place for almost nine days".
"The rejection of the petitioner's prayer at this stage may result in irreversible damage," said the judge while ordering an expeditious autopsy.
The first post-mortem was conducted on June 10 in Kolkata and the body was handed over to the petitioner on June 12.
Since then, the body has been in the family's possession.
Earlier, a single-judge bench of Justice Manjari Nehru Kaul had dismissed Bhullar's father plea saying the court has no jurisdiction as the post-mortem was conducted in Kolkata.
Bhullar's father, however, approached the Supreme Court which set aside Justice Kaul's order and asked the P&HHC to decide the plea by June 21.
The counsel for the petitioner told Justice Jhingan that the petitioner was not ready to hand over the body to the police and he would himself bring the body to the PGIMER.
"Let the petitioner hand over the body of his son to PGIMER, Chandigarh on 22nd June, 2021 at 10:00 AM for conducting the second post-mortem," the judge wrote in his order.
Senior advocate Amit Jhanji, appearing for the PGIMER, assured the court that the "needful would be done" by the PGIMER for compliance of its directions.
The high court while deciding the petition said, "The court is not opining or commenting upon the facts pleaded about the encounter of the petitioner's son."
"Only the prayer for the second post-mortem is being dealt with. The petitioner would be at liberty to avail remedies available in law for redressal of grievances, if any."
"In normal circumstances, it would have been appropriate to hear the West Bengal authorities but considering that time is the given the direction of the Supreme Court, the petition is being decided today itself," as per the court order.