In a fresh twist to the controversy surrounding the death of Judge Brijgopal Harkishan Loya – who was presiding over the encounter case of Sohrabuddin Sheikh in which BJP president Amit Shah was discharged by the CBI court –The Caravan magazine published a report on Monday, 2 April, that says a doctor related to a Maharashtra Cabinet minister manipulated Loya’s post-mortem report and excluded some crucial details about the judge’s death.
According to official records, Loya’s post-mortem was conducted by Dr NK Tumram at Nagpur’s Government Medical College (GMC). However, The Caravan report says that the post-mortem was led by Dr Makarand Vyawahare, member of Maharashtra Medical Council and the brother-in-law of Sudhir Mungantiwar, the finance minister of Maharashtra, who is practically the number two in the BJP-led state government under Devendra Fadnavis.
The magazine cites accounts of various employees present during the 1 December, 2014 post-mortem, stating that Vyawahare directed the post-mortem examination —even shouting down a junior doctor who tried to question him during the examination of Loya’s head, the back of which had a wound.
The post-mortem report does not mention any wounds on Loya’s head. GMC employees told the magazine that there was an injury on Loya’s head, “on the back, towards the right side.”
The injury was of “the kind that is there when a stone hits and the skin tears,” he said, and was not particularly large. He added that the wound was deep enough for blood to have gushed out of it, so much so that the “cloth that was covering him [Loya] was soaked with blood towards the head … it was completely red.”
Another employee recalled Vyawahare directing a doctor, “Write only as much as I am telling you.”
Judge Loya’s family members had also told The Caravan earlier that they had seen an injury on Loya’s head, and blood on his body and shirt.
Tumram, who signed the post-mortem report, replied to all questions posed by The Caravan by saying either that he had already submitted everything or that he had no comment.
Vyawahare also denied any involvement in the drafting of post-mortem report.
Vyawahare's Shady History
Several employees at the GMC admitted witnessing instances in which Vyawahare manipulated post-mortem examinations and falsified reports, the magazine claimed.
Vyawahare’s colleagues repeatedly told The Caravan that he had leveraged his relationship to Mungantiwar throughout his career.
On 17 November, 2015 a student at GMC attempted suicide citing “Vyawahare’s unrelenting harassment.” Dr Nitin Sharnagat, then a 28-year-old post-graduate student, told The Times of India:
Dr Vyawahare would often flaunt his kin’s name who is a minister in the state cabinet and threaten me. He would often harass me by not giving signatures to the post-mortems done by me. I would be often made to sit for a whole day to get any work done from him.
Another female student had also filed a sexual-harassment complaint against Vyawahare.
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