Mangaluru: A preliminary report on the post-mortem of Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) founder and business tycoon V.G. Siddhartha, whose body was discovered on the banks of Netravathi river on Wednesday, was submitted to the Investigating Officer (IO) on Friday with officials remaining tight-lipped on the cause of death though sources said all indications point to death by drowning.
The post-mortem was conducted on the morning of July 31 by a team of doctors with the District Medical Officer (DMO) saying the report was confidential and its details could not be made public.
The viscera samples have been sent to the forensic lab for a detailed investigation and once the findings are received, the final report will be prepared and submitted to the IO. These samples are crucial in ascertaining the condition of the body and the cause of death.
Meanwhile the fact that the body of Siddhartha was not bloated, as in other cases of drowning deaths, has raised various questions but forensic experts did not see anything unusual in this. "Bloating is a sign of decomposition. Usually the decomposition is quick when the water temperature is high (as in summer). It is raining now and the temperature of the water is low due to which the decomposition might have been delayed," a forensic expert told Deccan Chronicle. The CCD founder's body was found 36 hours after he went missing from a bridge over the Netravathi river in Ullal.
The forensic expert made it clear that bloating of the body is not restricted to cases of death due to drowning."Even the carcasses of animals which die on the roadside and not in water get bloated," he explained.
Visible signs of decomposition might not be present if the body is at a place where salt water meets river water, he said. "The presence of salt water from the ocean might have delayed the decomposition," he added.
"Fish and other marine animals had not damaged the body and had that happened, the process of bloating and decomposition would have been fast. The decomposition happens slowly in flowing water compared to stagnant water as bacterial activity is faster when water is stagnant," he said adding, "There was a lot of activity in the river (because of the hectic search operations) which explains why fish and other marine beings did not damage the body."
Medical experts said that the intense speculation that the body did not bloat because Siddharatha had died of a heart attack before his body hit the water had no scientific basis.
