Express News Service
KOCHI: Forensic expert Dr B Umaduttan says though speculations will not lead anywhere, preliminary symptoms, such as the bleeding caused by the abdominal injury in Sreejith’s medical report indicate he had been tortured.Speaking to Express, Umaduttan said there could be two causes for Sreejith’s death.
It could either be caused by the alleged physical torture and the internal bleeding that followed or could be the shock of the operation. When anaesthesia is given before a surgery, there is a chance of the patient’s body going into shock.
“This is a case of unnatural death. Any death that happened because of causes that are not natural can be stated as such. With the allegations against the police standing, it is important the investigation is foolproof,” said Umaduttan.
“As a first step, the body should be subjected to an investigation called inquest which is headed by a revenue divisional officer, tahsildar or a person holding an office of equal capacity. The postmortem should preferably be done by a team of government doctors,” he said.
“Since the patient was sent to Ernakulam Medical College, it would be prudent to send the body to Alappuzha Medical College. All the instructions by the State Human Rights Commission in case of an autopsy should obviously be followed,” Umaduttan said.
When Sreejith was admitted to the hospital he had complained about severe abdominal pain, difficulty to urinate and vomiting. “Speculations will lead us nowhere with regard to the symptoms, as they could mean innumerable things. If a proper autopsy is not done, it could lead to wrongful conclusions and diversion of the investigation,” he said.
Sreejith had been taken to a private hospital in the city from Ernakulam Medical College on Sunday evening. Sreejith underwent an emergency abdominal surgery here. However, he succumbed to his injuries on Monday.
