The family of the 19-year-old Manipuri student Richard Loitam who is awaiting the final post-mortem report of his death, believe the police investigation is not as thorough as it should be. Richard’s uncle, Manbindu Singh, an SP in Manipur, said, “It’s surprising the police are depending on forensic science laboratory reports to come to a conclusion. Being a police officer, I know that there are other legal ways to solve the case. They have filed a report against two accused. The cops can arrest them and interrogate them. Delay is only leading to suspicion. If the police cannot solve the case, we request the government to hand it over to the CBI.”
The Bengaluru Rural police said they must get the FSL report before they can take any action. “Our investigating officer is at the hospital to collect the reports, but we have not received them,” Bengaluru Rural SP Prakash said. On reports that Loitam’s body has completely decomposed, he said that immediately after the case was registered on April 18 at the Madanayakanahalli police station, the body was shifted to Victoria Hospital for preservation.
“His parents arrived in the city on April 19 evening and the post-mortem was conducted the next day. There was no negligence on the part of the police. By the time the autopsy was conducted, the body could have been partly decayed, but not completely,” he said. The forensic medical department too denies there was any delay or that the body had decayed. “We started the procedure on April 20 and there was no delay on our part,” Dr Dileep of the department said.
But Manipuri Meitei Association is not convinced. It is still concerned about the inordinate delay in fixing responsibility for the death of the young student. The president of the association, Mr Om Prakash, told “If the actual cause of death is not known by today evening, by tomorrow the association will decide and take a severe step. We have been waiting since long and don’t understand why there is a delay in the case. We do not want any innocent person to be punished but at the same time, if the cause of death is due to assault, the accused should be taken to task.”