Vyapam scam: AIIMS to send journalist Akshay Singh's viscera to Central forensic laboratory
New Delhi: AIIMS will send to the central forensic laboratory in New Delhi, the viscera samples of TV journalist Akshay Singh, who died under mysterious circumstances while covering Vyapam scam, to test for poisoning and will conduct examination of tissues to study any manifestation of disease.
According to a senior doctor, the forensic department of All India Institute of Medical Sciences here does not have the required facilities to conduct the toxicological analysis of viscera samples which is used to determine if there is any poisoning and its source. A three-member AIIMS board comprising Additional Professor Dr Adarsh Kumar, Professor Dr Millo Tabin and Senior Resident Doctor Shashank Pooniya, all from the forensic department of AIIMS, is conducting histopathological test which involves microscopic examination of tissues to study manifestations of disease.
According to sources at AIIMS, the institute does not have the mandate and the enhanced facilities required to conduct toxicological analysis of viscera samples, the reason why even in Sunanda Pushkar's case her viscera samples were sent to CFSL last year.
"AIIMS yesterday had received the viscera samples. Now as per the procedure, the HOD-Forensic will write a letter recommending that the viscera be tested at CFSL and the police team will take the samples there," said the sources. On Tuesday, a police team from Jhabua, Madhyan Pradesh had come with the scribe's viscera samples and had handed it over to AIIMS forensic head.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had also urged the Union Health Minister J P Nadda that viscera samples be tested at AIIMS. As per post-mortem done by Dahod General Hospital in Gujarat, no internal or external injuries were found on his body. He had an enlarged heart and weight of the heart was more than normal and lungs were congested, the report stated.
However, doctors who conducted the autopsy had "reserved" their opinion on the cause of death, following which the samples were brought to Delhi. Singh, who was working with Delhi-based TV Today Group, was suddenly taken ill and died last Saturday after having interviewed parents of a girl Namrata Damor, who had been found dead near railway tracks after her name figured in the Vyapam scam.
The demand for sending the viscera outside the state was made by Singh's sister in a letter to Chouhan. India Today group, for which Singh worked, had also urged Madhya Pradesh government to send his viscera sample to a forensic laboratory outside the state, preferably AIIMS at Delhi, for a transparent examination.
A large number of accused and witnesses in the scam - a massive admission and recruitment racket involving several middlemen, medical college owners, bureaucrats and politicians - have died so far under mysterious circumstances. Bowing to public outcry, Chouhan said he will request the High Court to order a CBI probe into the Vyapam case, including the large number of deaths of people allegedly linked to the scam.
