A case of shot gun injury

The history of the case goes like this. An elderly Hindu male had affection with a middle aged Muslim widow. He used help her by all means. This affair went for a period when he was no longer able to tolerate the monetary extraction. One afternoon when she was washing her clothes in the nearby river he shot her with a shotgun. She died & he consumed poison( organophosphorous compound) & admitted in a hospital & recovered to meet the trial
The trial was at additional sessions,Manjery. Thrice the case was adjourned. The defence counsel was the son of former director general of prosecutions. He told me he is able to thrive well because of one or two doctors in the same speciality supporting him; mainly making him knowlegable with forensic pathology tit-bits to cross examine the medical witness. I told him you are very lucky.

In this case also he tried his level best with assisted knowledge but failed miserably. When the court was about to be adjourned he informed me that during the previous trail for other cases by represented by him & medical expert myself ;all the cases ended in conviction. I told him in reply that you were given good coaching by experts & what happened?

The defence he put forward was " COMMATIO - CORDIS" - a non penetrating trivial injury involving heart which affects the electrical conduction of the heart. This kind of information can be fed only by a forensic medicine specialist. In this case the firing was from a distance ,made out by spread of shots. There were mutiple penetrating injuries by pellets involving,heart,lungs & liver. So many pellets were recovered.
dr.n.rajaram

three cases of ligature strangulation involving taxi drivers.

There was a time I used to do same type murder cases over a period of time. The stories in combination is an example for that. The main thing in common ;all were recovered in a decomposed state. Two of them are young boys & the third one aged between 55-60 yrs. In all these the cabs were hired for travel to distant places. Modes operands ligature strangulation accomplished by the assailant/assailants preferring rear seat of the car. In the case of middle aged man he was given frooti mixed with phenobarbital. It was also detected during chemical analysis. The ligature mark & other injuries to the neck structures were bare minimum. In the other two cases there were # of thyroid cartilages with contusion of soft tissues of the neck. Injuries in the form of contusion were seen in the two bodies mentioned above & recovered from water. The middle aged person's body was recovered from the 9th hair pin bend kozhikode- thamarassery ghat road. It is said that this is the common place to dump dead bodies. Those cases recovered from water were located at Kadalundi river & the other . one from some pond in wayanad district.( Both of them were unknown) All these cases were convicted With respect to kadalundi case the special PublicProsecutor was Late Mr. Kunjiramapuduval & I had a very hectic time in the court. The name of the defence is not in my mind now. When the verdict was announced the inhabitants of Vadakara arranged a gathering to felicitate the advocate & police officers as a token of gratitude to the victory with respect to the unknown boy later identified as Mr------- from vadakara.
dr.n.rajaram
In government service one can't choose their Boss or subordinates. At one time I was staying at cherpulassery & commuting to trchur daily &the kadalundi case was subjected to autopsy at that time. The body arrived during forenoon & there was no other case pending for autopsy. The associate professor waited till 3.00pm to allot the case only to me, to see that Iam leaving to my residence very late. There were some seniors with sadistic mentality.
dr.n.rajaram