Kerala: Forensic Sciences Laboratory yet to send viscera report of doctor
The police can file the amended chargesheet only on the basis of the chemical analysis report to ascertain that he was poisoned.
Kottayam: It is nearly one-and-a-half years since Dr P.A. Baiju, government ayurveda doctor in Idukki, died after consuming poison-filled medicine on September 12, 2016. But so far, the police have not received the chemical analysis report from the Forensic Sciences Laboratory in Thiruvananthapuram where the viscera was sent on September 17, 2016. This has prevented the police from filing the chargesheet in the case, Munnar DySP C. Abhilash told Deccan Chronicle.
Dr Baiju was the medical officer at the government ayurveda dispensary at Bison Valley in Idukki district in 2007 when he prescribed a medicine 'rasna panchakam' for a patient, Shanthi, who bought it from a store. But Rajappan, Santhi's husband, mixed pesticide in the medicine so as to kill her. Shanthi, who consumed a small dosage of it, fainted, but regained her health later. The relatives brought the medicine to Dr Baiju on January 25, 2007 not knowing that Rajappan had mixed pesticide in it. Dr Baiju consumed it to prove its efficacy and collapsed immediately.
He was taken to the hospital where he regained consciousness, but after a few days, he relapsed into coma and remained in it for nine years. On a complaint filed by Dr Baiju's wife, the police arrested Rajappan on April 5, 2007 and registered an attempt-to-murder case which was changed to culpable homicide after the death of Dr Baiju and based on the autopsy held at the Muvattupuzha general hospital.
To speed up the proceedings, the Munnar police sent the viscera to the FSL, Thiruvananthapuram, which hasn't given the report so far. The police can file the amended chargesheet only on the basis of the chemical analysis report to ascertain that he was poisoned.