Delhi demolition drive: Injuries due to impact of blunt force killed child, says autopsy report
New Delhi: Two days after a six-month-old girl died in mysterious circumstances during a slum cluster demolition by the railways in northwest Delhi’s Shakurpur area, the autopsy report of the deceased, Rukaiya Khatoon, has revealed that she died due to shock and injuries on chest and head due to impact of blunt force and mentioned fractures in ribs and head.
“Fracture of left two four ribs with blood extravasations in surrounding tissue,” read the autopsy. However, the railways claimed that the girl had died two hours before the start of demolition work. The parents of the baby alleged that the girl had died due to demolition drive conducted by the railways. “They created such a situation that led to the death of our child,” the parents of the girl alleged.
Read:
Demolition slugfest intensifies, Delhi High Court comes down heavily on Railway ministry and police
The post-mortem of the deceased was conducted at the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital by a team of expert forensic doctors on Sunday at around 11.35 am. The autopsy report has stated that all the injuries were ante-mortem in nature and possible in manner as alleged. The autopsy also stated that death of the toddler had occurred approximately 30 hours ago.
On Monday, a team of Delhi police from the Punjabi Bagh police station recorded the statement of Mohammad Anwar, the father of the baby girl, and lodged a case accordingly.
“I don’t want to indulge in political positioning or political sloganeering. The unfortunate death of the six-month-old girl and demolition drive are two different incidents. The girl had died at about 9.30 am on Saturday while the demolition work started at about 12 pm on Saturday,” joint commissioner of police Dependra Pathak said.
The parents of the girl said that on Saturday they were packing their belongings in a helter-skelter manner after they were informed about the demolition drive. A bundle of clothes fell on the baby while she was asleep on the floor. This proved fatal as the girl received critical injuries. “On Saturday morning, I was informed about the demolition drive by my neighbours. I then started collecting luggage in my shanty. I had tied one set of luggage (all clothes) and kept it on the side of a wooden table. I then went to another room and this bundle fell on my daughter. When I returned to this room, I found my daughter gasping for breath, trapped beneath the heap of clothes. She had bruises on her face,” Anwar reportedly told the police. The girl was immediately removed to Bhagwan Mahavir Hospital where the doctors declared her dead on arrival.
With the body of their daughter, the heartbroken parents reached home back at around 10.30 am and found that the rail officials were briefing the locals about the demolition drive.
“A few minutes after this, at around 10.38 am one of the neighbours of the deceased made a call on PCR to report about her death after which the police took her body to the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital for a post-mortem,” said the police.
According to the information, the demolition work began at about 11.50 am and went till 7 pm. Shanty number 488, in which the deceased used to live with her parents was demolished at around 4 pm. The couple has two more children, a girl aged five and a boy aged three.
Anwar, who broke down while speaking to the media, said his daughter would have been alive if the officials had given them prior notice. The AAP government had on Sunday ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident after placing two sub-divisional magistrates and a senior official under suspension. About 1,200 shanties were demolished in the drive. The railways said that they had issued three notices before the drive.
