Mumbai: The lawyer of the three accused arrested in connection with the custodial death of Byculla jail inmate Manju Shetye on Tuesday argued before the court that the injuries mentioned in her post-mortem report were not injuries but were marks of postmortem lividity.
According to the applicants, the magistrate and the doctor did not see any injury during inquest panchnama (first panchnama of the dead body). Shetye was also suffering from various illnesses and even had symptoms of TB. So, according to the applicants, the patches seen on the body had developed after death due to her illness and were visible because of her fair complex and not an assault.
Applicant’s lawyer further argued that the magistrate and the doctor would not lie, especially when panchnama was being visually recorded. He claimed that there was a gap of four hours between the inquest panchnama and autopsy and that it was in this period that the patches developed on Shetye’s body and the doctors who conducted her post-mortem, had termed them as injuries.
The crime branch had arrested Manisha Pokharkar, Vasima Shaikh, Sheetal Shegaonkar, Surekha Gulve, Aarti Shinghane and Bindu Naykode, all women police constables of Byculla jail. All of them had filed bail application before the Sessions court but on Tuesday, Pokharkar, Shegaonkar and Shinghane withdrew their bail pleas. According to the prosecution, the accused had beaten Shetye to death.
Applicant’s lawyer V. Bagade argued that statements of all the witnesses are contradictory to the facts mentioned in the FIR. He also pointed out that apart from the complainant Maryam Shaikh, none of the witness had spoken about Manju being tortured at private parts.
He argued before special judge Shayana Patil that the prosecution had provided only recordings of two CCTV cameras inside Byculla jail, alleging that the CCTV recordings had been tempered with and had no audio in them.
