On Sunday, the Calcutta High Court ordered that the postmortem of a minor girl, allegedly raped and murdered in the Jaynagar area of West Bengal, be conducted at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Kalyani.
Justice Tirthankar Ghosh, who presided over the matter, also directed the police to include relevant charges under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act in the case.
“The Court is of the prima facie opinion that the inquest report, prior to the postmortem, suggests sexual offenses were committed against the deceased, and therefore, appropriate legal provisions should have been invoked by the investigating agency,” the Court stated.
Justice Tirthankar Ghosh Justice Tirthankar Ghosh
The Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate at Baruipur was instructed to be physically present during the postmortem. The Court emphasized that while magistrates typically do not interfere with investigations, they are empowered to oversee them.
The Court also ordered that the victim’s parents be kept informed throughout the process. If they wished to observe the postmortem proceedings virtually, arrangements were to be made for them to do so outside the room where the examination would take place. If they preferred not to observe, they were to be provided a separate, comfortable space.
The body of the nine-year-old girl was found in Mahismari, Jaynagar, in the early hours of October 5. A lower court had earlier rejected the police’s request to conduct the postmortem in the presence of a judicial magistrate at Mominpur Police Morgue Hospital. The State government later approached the High Court to challenge this decision but ultimately withdrew its challenge, supporting the victim’s father’s request to have the postmortem conducted at a central government hospital.
The case will be heard again on October 8.
Several legal representatives appeared for both the State and the victim’s family, including Advocate General Kishore Dutta, Public Prosecutor Debasish Roy, Deputy Solicitor General Dhiraj Trivedi, and advocates representing the Union of India and the family.
