When Namrata Damor, a medical student, died in 2012, she was studying at the Government MGM Medical College in Indore.
It was dismissed as a suicide case even though the doctor who produced her autopsy report never called it a suicide.
Earlier today Ujjain district Superintendent of Police Manohar Singh Varma had said that they had ordered a review of the death of Namrata Damor. According to him, Sub- Divisional Officer of Police, Tarana, R K Sharma was to reopen the case.
The police today denied a review to the case, however, as the court or any other agency had not ordered reopening of the case which is marked as complete by the police.
No review was ordered in the case as investigation is complete and the report has been submitted. No question of any review arises.
– V Madhu Kumar, Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ujjain Range
What did the Doctors say?
Namrata’s death is linked to the deadly Vyapam scandal; it is suspected that she may have secured admission to medical college through the rigged Pre-Medical Test conducted by the Vyapam (Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board).
Her body was found near the railway tracks on January 7, 2012 in the district. An autopsy report, dated January 9, 2012, had said it was a “homicidal” death caused by “violent asphyxia as a result of smothering”. However, when the police filed a closure report in 2014, they called it a “suicide” contradicting the findings of the autopsy report.
The report was signed by a team of three doctors – Dr B B Purohit, Dr O P Gupta and Dr Anita Joshi. Dr Purohit has come to vehemently claim that she was murdered and that there was “not even one per cent chance of a natural death” – according to this NDTV report.
The panel of doctors that conducted the post-mortem (PM) has never mentioned in their short PM report as well as the detailed PM report that it was a case of suicide. We also found nail injuries at three places on her face.
—Dr Purohit
“There were bruises on the nose and mouth of the woman which indicated she was strangled. Also bruises on her body suggested she was dragged on the tracks after her death,” Dr Purohit told NDTV.
When the body was brought for postmortem it was unidentified he said. Namrata had gone missing after the college declared its results on January 7, 2012. While her brother filed a missing persons report, the police found an unidentified, mutilated body near the railway tracks and cremated her – after conducting an autopsy.
Her brother had later identified her from posters of Namrata that were distributed all over Ujjain and had her body exhumed.
Contradictory Claims from Another Doctor
However, according to this Telegraph report, Dr D.S. Badkur, the head of Madhya Pradesh’s Medico Legal Institute that specialises in forensic medicine, contested the claim.
I did not believe in the post-mortem report made by the three doctors. I differed with their opinion. I had submitted my own report.
– Dr D S Badkur, as reported by The Telegraph
Badkur also declared that he would readily face any inquiry. Sources said it was Badkur’s report that prompted Ujjain police to change the “murder” case to that of an “accident”.
Namrata’s case came back into focus following the sudden death of TV journalist Akshay Singh in Jhabua district’s Meghnagar town. Akshay had been interviewing Namrata’s father trying to get to the bottom of her death.
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