Mumbai: He told the court that he could not find the cause of death and did not mention it in the report.
Dr Sanjay Thakur, while answering the questions asked by special public prosecutor Ejaz Khan, said that on reaching the spot, he found the decomposed and half-burned skeleton. The doctor cut the hair on the left backside of the skull, the skin on the left side hand, a piece of bone of the upper side right hand and two teeth of the lower parts of the jaw.
Former media baron Peter Mukerjea’s lawyer, advocate Shrikant Shivde, cross-examined Dr Thakur who told the court that for unclaimed or unidentified bodies, a DNA test was mandatory. He also said that he had collected the body parts for the DNA test but wasn’t aware of how to preserve body parts of the DNA test as per the protocol.
The doctor also stated before the court that without the viscera, the final opinion about death cannot be made (in this case, the viscera could not be preserved as it was decomposed). He also said that the police did not ask him about the cause of death. Though he accepted that it was mandatory for a doctor to mention any foul play or suspicious circumstances appearing through post-mortem, he did not make any such entry in the post-mortem because he never felt like mentioning it.
During the cross-examination, he also said, “I am aware that I cannot give opinion about the cause of death without the viscera report. I had sent the party the burned and dried skin, hair, teeth (for analysis)… I have no received the report of the same and therefore, I cannot render the final cause of death.”
Dr Thakur had conducted the post-mortem of the skeleton found at Gogodhe village in Raigarh district in May 2012, almost a month after Sheena Bora was murdered.
