STABBING FROM BEHIND

This particular case undergone postmortem examination at CALI CUT Medical college during 2004. Dr.Ajay &myself conducted the autopsy. It was mainly conducted by Dr.Ajay the then PG. I was supervising the same.The deceased underwent elective tubectomyin the district hospital & later referred to IMCH. We were able to notice a handful collection of purulent blood stained fluid in the pelvic cavity. The operated site appeared normal. There were petechiae involving visceral organs. All the internal organs including brain were preserved for histopathological findings.Based upon the clinical,postmortem,& histopathological findings an opinion as to the cause of death was given as "The possibility of death due to septicemia following tubal ligation could not be ruled out".The certificates were placed on the table of HOD for forwarding to the concerned court & police. At that time the remark made by the HOD was" The opinion is not correct. I have perused the records & in my opinion the deceased died of DEHYDRATION & you have to change it!!. I said "NO"In that case HOD informed me that another note will be tagged with the certificate. against me&  I said;proceed. She also harassed the DMO,who happened to be a friend of mine. She used to brain wash the husband of the deceased saying that the death was due to dehydration ; the doctor who treated the wife as well as the doctors who conducted the postmortem are responsible ; criminal action should be taken against them for causing death of the woman & giving a false opinion as to cause of death.. The HOD also motivated the DYSP,Calicut to take action against me. I was harassed by the DYSP & later on when I gave the statement,he was convinced that fault is with the HOD . out of only professional jealousy all these thing happened.
The case was heard in the Munsiff court kozhikode. I gave support for the doctors involved. The advocate who appeared for the doctors on behalf of IMA was very brilliant & knowledgeable. The HOD was cornered by the advocate regarding treatment aspects &; she was not able to withstand questions.I other words she is inexperienced with regard to treatment aspects.  The complainant informed the court that he was withdrawing the case but no harm should be done to his aid.. There ends the baseless accusation by the HOD. 

The future of Forensic medicine in Kerala

Future Of Forensic Medicine In Kerala 

I have learned the subject both theory & practical aspects;  from Veterans in this field like Dr.V.K. Jayapalan &;Dr.P.Sivasankara pillai. I always consider them as my role models. Working with them was a memorable period & I tried to copy down their disciplined behaviour  strictness, punctuality & boldness in every day medico-legal work. Till my retirement in April.2007 from Government Medical College,Trichur ,I tried to uphold all these qualities of good work I imbibed from them. I have got a question to my colleagues  Can any body point out a role model that can be projected?  I may say nobody. Only those people who had acquittance with them agree that they are benevolent & great. Other friends may stare among themselves when I described them as role models; just like Alice in wonderland.

Now the whole scenario is changed. Each person in the department is an individual department himself. The official work is carried out daily according to their whims & fancy. Some people are more interested in giving details of confidential matters to the press &media. .Higher authority is not having any hold on these kind of people. The HOD can't open his mouth to correct them. You may think WHY? I may say that if the HOD wants to control their colleague, he should be an ideal person with a vision  sincerity & devotion towards his profession; that is lacking .The HOD visits the department once in a blue moon & mark his presence in the attendance for those days he was not actually present. 

Now with regards to teaching in government colleges there is day by day degradation except in certain colleges. Nobody is interested to take classes for the undergraduates or postgraduates in certain colleges. During the training period irrespective of undergraduate or postgraduate they should be led in the right track so that each one of them follows the routine work they studied under good guidance. This was found lacking &whom to blame?

Another shuddering event that is being carried out in certain colleges is BINAMI POSTMORTEM  The poor post graduate student is doing out the post mortem work on behalf of HOD. The HOD is not having any knowledge about the case &;he put the signature in the detailed notes &certificate without knowing the findings & its interpretation to find out the cause of death. The only motive behind  is getting the remuneration for the post mortem done by the post graduate on the behalf of HOD. Iam asking a question to the readers WHO IS AT FAULT?

With regard to Binami post mortem I want to narrate a real incident that happened years back in one of the centres  A very senior professor ordered the PG to do the post mortem on his behalf. The PG very politely did it & came with a post mortem diagnosis of snake bite. The tissues preserved for chemical analysis proved negative for snake venom. In the mean time police arrested a person for having done criminal abortion on the said woman. The truth was revealed to the professor by the perpetrator of the crime by himself. Just imagine the mental condition of the said professor!!!!

There is another group of persons who conducted the autopsy with out giving any due respect &regards to the dead body &tried to twist/ omit the findings & form opinion that suited the police history or misled the police in their investigation by coming out with wild ideas & guess. By their action  justice is denied to the concerned.

There is yet another group who steal the findings given by  their true colleague &makes necessary changes in the certificate & dispatch these certificates to the concerned authority in their name by suppressing the evidence in the original post mortem detailed notes &certificate. The original post-mortem related documents are kept in abeyance.

One more group is there who gives age certificate according to the needs of the applicant not involved in a Medico-legal case.

By going through all these I may point out that corruption has already started & it is going to be in full swing in the years to come. Actually One senior professor clearly predicted the emerging corruption years back. 

Apart from this I want to narrate certain recent events occurred in my college. The students have to be taken for witnessing autopsy to government colleges outside Kerala because the government colleges here are forbidden to those students secured admission in private colleges including government merit seats.

The rate one of the senior professor dictating was astonishing  & heart breaking.

Each student should pay 1000 Rupees to the concerned MC office. You will get proper receipt from respective college office.

In addition to that 1)1000/student x number of Asst professor in the forensic department

                2)1500 /student x number of associate professor

                3)2500 / student x number of professors.

A group of students consisting of 100  may have to pay Rs 100000 + (another 75000 if there are asst & associate 2 each & one professor) + traveling charges+ hotel accommodation+ food. This may  come to four lacks  if the students are going to be taken in batches of 4 consisting of 25 numbers in each batch.

Now the medical education has become more of business in  nature & the concerned person  can fill their pockets with money made out from unscrupulous method.

Destructive crticism by defence lawyer

In the year 1994 I appeared before the Honarable I additional sessions court ,Palakkad to give evidence in a case of stab injury. During cross examination the defence counsel did not get any points in favor. There were seven accused in this case. He was trying to convince the court that there had occured a scuffle between the deceased & the accused & at last the deceased got multiple stab & cut injuries. In order to make his point stronger he was saying that " A SCUFFLE IS BETWEEN A GROUP OF PERSONS & IT IS NEVER ENDING" The judge asked me whether I did agree on the statement. I said I disagree. The judge was telling " IN THAT CASE YOU CAN DEFINE SCUFFLE". With in a fraction of second I uttered the following." SCUFFLE CAN BE DEFINED AS DEFENSIVE & PURPOSEFUL MOVEMENT BETWEEN TWO PERSONS, & THE ACT SCUFFLE ENDS WHEN ONE PERSON IS OVERPOWERED BY THE OTHER." On hearing this the defence counsel was commenting, You will say not only this & something beyond, because your association is with dead bodies. I was prompted to say something in return & the judge prevented me & himself came out like this. See Mr defence counsel, in a number of cases I used to give capital punishment & would you call me as the executioner?. After that comment the court was adjourned . I came behind the lawyer & told him you should respect each & every profession, for this he replied "Go to hell". I waited for an opportunity to give him something in return in that day itself. The counsel for the prosecution prevented me from further actions. I waited there near his car. with in short time he with his assistants & the accused persons came. I approached towards & told that You should respect each & other profession & it is their bread & butter. For this he retorted you go man& Iam having some other business to attend. I said I will go & before myself departing I may say that you are neither having any hair on your head & nor a brain inside your head & you are an imbecile . After that I went towards the jeep where the circle inspector of police in that case was waiting for me. The defence counsel came towards the jeep & lamented. See inspector tell him that I have seen so many other great police surgeons other than him. immediately the inspector was replying what ever you want to convey to him can be done directly to him.

Even though I said like that to the defence counsel directly over his face & I presume no body will dare to do it, I was not able to sleep during the night because the place where I was staying was very close to the place of accused

PROFESSIONAL RIVALARY

This particular case underwent autopsy at Calicut Medical college during the year 2004.The deceased was a 30-35 yr old female admitted at district hospital Calicut for elective tubal ligation. The surgery was over & later on she was referred to IMCH,Calicut for expert management. Subsequently she died. The autopsy was conducted by Dr.Ajay under my supervision. We were able to notice a handful collection of purulent blood stained fluid in the pelvic cavity. The internal organs showed petechiae with congestion. Histopatholgical examination of the internal organs revealed some findings in favor of septicaemia. The opinion was given as "the possibility of death due to septicaemia could not be ruled out." The HOD was very much vehement to forward the certificate to concerned court & police& asked me to change the opinion as the deceased died of dehydration. I said no & later informed me that the opinion of the HOD will be tagged along with the certificate. She also harassed the DMO,Calicut ,who happened to be my friend. The DYSP Calicut harassed me during my working at Medical college,Trichur & after retirement. I gave a statement to the above DYSP with regard to her death & at that time he was made aware that for want of nothing the HOD instigated all the untoward events.According to him out of professional jealousy all these misfortune happened. The HOD also brain washed the husband of the deceased to make him believe that the doctor who attended his wife did not give treatment in time & the doctors who conducted the autopsy were not able to find out the exact cause of death. I came to know recently that there is a move to sue the doctors concerned with this case in court of law.

The case came before sub judge Calicut three years ago. The HOD was not able to withstand the cross examination because of lack of clinical exposure. The complainant himself submitted before the Hon judge that "I AM WITHDRAWING MY CASE" & no harm should come for the HOD. 
My comment  TRUTH ALWAYS PREVAILS

WHIMS & FANCY OF STATE MEDICO-LEGAL EXPERT

During the year 1995, I conducted a post mortem examination on the body of 35-40 yr old woman with the history of formic acid poisoning. The post mortem findings as well as chemical analysis turned out to be +ve for formic acid&I gave the opinion as well as statement also to the police; that based upon the the post mortem findings ,clinical history & chemical report that it was a case of poisoning due to formic acid & I didnot suspect any foul play. During 1997 while I was working at TRICHUR MEDICAL college I went to PARIYARAM Medical college as examiner. I happened to attend a phone call made by the public prosecutor Thalassery sessions during my stay at Dr. SGK'S house. He was ridiculing a doctor who conducted the post mortem examination in a case. and he was in need of an expert opinion from Dr.SGK in the above said case.Later on I made him to realise that It was the same person who conducted the autopsy to whom he was talking. He was pleading to see that at the time of giving evidence "I SHOULD SAY THAT IT WAS A CASE OF HOMICIDAL POISONING". To this request I said NO. Later Dr. SGK came & I narrated the whole event. HE informed me that out of political interest the police approached the State medico-legal expert(DR.MRC)& requested that in the absence of injuries to mouth & lips whether it could be a case of homicidal poisoning? The expert opined that it could be ,because formic acid was poured into the mouth of the person using a funnel & that was the reason for the absence of injuries around & inside the mouth? How silly & foolish it was.Dr SGK disagreed with the opinion of the medico-legal expert. But when the case was heard in the court both Dr.SGK & myself gave evidence on the same day in Thalassery sessions. He gave an opinion that some abrasions on the hands could be due to restraint injuries & the possibilty of homicidal poisoning could not be ruled out. The defence asked only one question to him . You are giving this opinion after reading the certificate issued by another doctor. When comparing the findings &opinion noted by the doctor with your expert opinion which is more reliable & correct? He was made to say that opinion given by the doctor should be relied upon.

The case was made homicidal out of political interest because the husband of the deceased resigned from one party to another.& he was made a scapegoat. One interesting fact to note was that the police never approached me with the homicidal theory.

A case of ligature strangulation,head injury

In the year 2005 I conducted postmortem examination on the body of one 11year old girl involved in valappad crime. There were finding in favor of ligature strangulation as horizontal ligature marks, soft tissue injury on the neck, head injury. Examination of the anal orifice reveled that she is used to the act of sodomy. Anal swab & smear proved +ve for semen & spermatozoa.The accused was arrested & he faced trail in the children's court, Ramavarmapuram during the middle of 2007. I took the photographs at the time of conducting the autopsy,but did not include the photos in the certificate. That was a mistake on my part. At the time of cross examination I showed the photographs to the Hon: Chief judicial magistrate & requested to include the same as evidence. The defence objected it & at last it was taken as evidence. No idea regarding the verdict given

Public prosector takes the role of defence lawyer

I did one murder case registered under OLLUR police station limits. The accused for brought to the department for taking the nail clippings & blood. DR. N.G.Revi was in charge of the department on that day. Since the department was not having a nail cutter & disposable syringe ,we requested the accompanying police constables to buy the required things. They did not like the request fro us & more over in the request they have shown the arrest of the person at 1200hrs & in fact he was brought at 1030 hrs.The above said matter was highlighted by Dr.N.G.Revi. We had a big quarrel after that . In the end they bought the materials & we did the needful. The police gave a report in the evening daily a report like this. "Dr.N. Rajaram is humiliating the police force & he is very ,quarrelsome,arrogant & action should be taken against him". The above said daily was brought by my friend Dr. P.C.Ignatius. I did not pay ant attention to it.
After few years when the case was posted at I additional sessions court, TRICHUR,before my court appearance I met the prosecutor Sri. Francis in his office. The first comment from him was that when Iam going to ask you regarding whether the investigating officer had questioned you in this case ,you should say "YES". I said "NO". Under that circumstance Iam going to declare as hostile. I said proceed. When I was about to leave from his room & he again put forth another request " Iam having certain doubts to clarify? I replied back "anyway you are going to declare me as hostile & the answer to your question will be given by me in the witness box.
The Hon: judge was Sri. Bhavadasn Nampoothri. After swearing in the box,the first question asked by the prosecutor "have you been questioned by the police"?I replied "NO". He was referring me as liar &was making a comment that I used to treat the police very badly& therefore he is going to declare me as "HOSTILE"
The judge opposed & informed that he new me well & there is no point against me to declare as hostile. I gave a deposition of what had happened at the time of examining the person. After taking down my explanation he was criticising the police & informed the prosecutor that it is unfair on his part to raise unnecessary comments against me

Miscarriage of justice

A political assassination with respect to Guruvayoor police station was posted at I additional sessions judge's court at TRICHUR years back. There were some ten accused persons who were facing the trail. The Special public prosecutor was none other than Sri. Veerachandra Menon. The defence lawyer was Late Sri. Kunjirama menon.It is acustom to meet the public prosecutor in each & every case in which we used to appear as witness. In this case also I met Sri. Veera chandra menon at the morning hours in his office. One request put forward by him is that "when I ask a particular question You may please answer in this way"!!. I replied back like this. Since your the Special prosecutor for this case you may tell like this & once that is over I will be facing you in another occasion as a defence lawyer & you may highlight the precedence at that time. I do not want that to happen & please excuse me.I had a very good time in the court with these eminent advocates & all the accused were sent to jail.

After few years it was reveled in another investigation ordered by high court that the real accused in that particular case were living as respectable citizens. A re-trail of the case was not undertaken so far

A CASE OF SODOMY

The victim happened to be a native of ORISSA, Working in a plywood company in Perumbavoor.He was arrested for a theft case in Perumbavoor & detained at Central prison,VIYYOR,TRICHUR.
On the early morning of 02/12'05 (0200hrs)I received a phone call from a police constable from Viyyor prison stating that a victim of sodomy was brought to the department of Forensic Medicine . To my surprise the duty surgeon in the town hospital casualty had examined the case completely in & informed the constable he should be taken to Forensic medicine department for further examination. I informed the constable the working time of the department from 0090hrs-1600hrs & requested him to bring the case at 0900hrs. The constable came by 1100hrs. The request for examination was issued by superintendent of Prison. There was a dispute whether we can examine the case,since no request was issued by the concerned police station. Any way on humanitarian grounds after entering the case in the medico-legal register I started examining the case. I could not proceed further because of excruciating pain complained by the victim. Professor of surgery was contacted I made request to examine the person under anaesthesia& take an anal swab & smear That day evening he was examined as directed & the surgeon could make out multiple superficial laceration of anal mucosa. The condition of the anal mucosa good.
The anal swab & smear turned out to be +ve for semen & spermatozoa.
No further development till this time

A CASE OF NEGLIGENCE

A seven year old girl from TRICHUR was admitted for squint correction in a famous teaching hospital in Cochin.

After pre anaesthetic medication she was taken to theatre for conducting the surgery. During induction of anaesthesia cardiac arrest occur ed. She was revived & again on induction she died on the table. Death was declared only by 1800hrs in the evening. Till that time she was put on ventilator& nothing was reveled to the relatives till evening. The body was brought for autopsy at Trichur Medical college,the next day. During autopsy I was not able to make out any surgical incision in the affected eye. As per IP case records surgery was completed?WHAT A CONTRADICTION!!. Even though by autopsy I was not able to make out anything except petechiae of internal organs with congestion; by histopathologiacl examination of internal organs reveled the existence of allergic reaction. Opinion as to cause of death was given as due to inhalation of anaesthetic gas after getting histopathological opinion from Pathologist. Later on from the investigating officer it was known that there was only one anaesthesiologist looking after 09 or 10 operation table. In that case thereis no wonder for this incident to occur. The concerned lady ophthalmicsurgeon from north India returned back to her native place.

In order to bring out the role of negligence of the doctor concerned as routine procedure;a meeting was convened by Eranakulam DMO, the medical boardconsisting of DMO,Superintendent of Police,Ernakulam,Public Prosecutor Ernakulam & Police surgeon from Alleppey Medical college. The opinion given by the police surgeon was " NO EVIDENCE OF ANAPHYLATIC REACTION". Later on I happened to meet the concerned & asked why such an opinion was given."The answer was I did not read the post-mortem certificate issued by You". This shows the motive of the concerned to safe guard the interest of the particular teaching Institution.The surgeons are having a feeling that in the event of death of a person in the operation table;if the matter is not disclosed to the relatives by them at that moment ,it will not be known to the concerned. They are forgetting about other theater staff working along with them. Another disgusting fact is that hooking up of case records in the event of death of the person. They are forgetting the doctrine"RES IPSA LOQUITOR"

Photographs of "MISINTERPERTED FINDINGS"

MISINTERPERTED FINDING

This particular case dates back to 2000 when I was working as Associate professor of Forensic medicine,Government Medical college,TRICHUR. A dead body involved in DELHI crime recovered from a park in an half naked condition over the picket fences where one of the spike had penetrated into the chest cavity.The deceased was a native of TRICHUR,KERALA. The body was subjected to medico-legal autopsy at Delhi& the relatives were not satisfied with the cause of death given. I conducted the re-autopsy. I was able to make out 07 ante mortem injuries on the body;out of which injury number 01 included 26circular lacerated injuries spread over forehead & face which could only be produced by shot gun fired at a distance. There was also another circular punched out lacerated wound over the front of left side of chest.The wound was communicating with the chest cavity without injuring any organs.Five postmortem injuries were also made out.( previous postmortem incisions & injuries produced during embalming.)I was able to recover a pellet piece from one of the wounds on the face. Out of the few pellet wounds over the face only two penetrated into the skull cavity. X- ray examination prior to autopsy did not bring anything in favor.As a routine procedure the fragment of pellet recovered,the vault of skull,X-rays taken & were handed over to the authorities under protest The father of the deceased approached the Supreme court demanding CBI inquiry & as demanded it was ordered. The CBI team appointed a medical board & the conclusion of the medical board is funny. It goes like this.1) The deceased was a mentally ill person,2) He was haunted by spirits,3) The multiple injuries described over the face as shotgun wound of entry are nothing but HESITATION WOUNDS.( Hesitation wound means a person who is going to commit suicide by inflicting injuries over ones own body will produce multiple parallel tentative superficial cuts to begin with & when he regains courage sufficiently he will make the fatal wound. These hesitation cuts as it is called are seen over the front of neck,front of wrists etc)This is very unusual for a person to produce multiple injuries spread over face by striking his head over the picket fences.I may say that there is degradation of academic thinking by our own experts.
The doctor who conducted the first autopsy gave his opinion as " CRANIO-CEREBRAL TRAUMA" I gave my opinion as " THE DECEASED DIED OF SHOT GUN INJURY" sustained. THE MEDICAL BOARD gave its verdict as " SUICIDAL & HE WAS MENTALLY ILL & HAUNTED BY SPIRITS". who was right????

This incident happened in the year 2001. A man of age 30-35 was shot by the gun man of superintendant of police on one evening. The former was running a video cassette shop in Trichur district & both of them knew each other well. The deceased sustained a wound of entry over the right side of chin & it made an exit over the back of neck. He was hospitalised & the surgeon misinterpreted the entry to exit & vice versa. He failed to notice the abrasion collar in the wound of entry. The direction of the wound was backwards & downwards through the white matter of brain. The occipital bone was fractured & fragmented. No powder tattooing was there, The history put forward by the police is that the deceased was trying to examine the revolver brought by the accused & while the deceased was examining the gun the accused snatched it from him & this resulted in the firing. Taking into consideration of the absence of tattooing I strongly suspects whether this theory holds good. Since this was a treated case, I was not able to make out any smudging. No flame effect was there. The police were not able to recover the exit bullet; the motive behind the firing is still unknown, the trail of the case is not started yet.

RE ENTRY

After a span of three months, Iam thinking of posting rest of my cases shortly.

dr.n.rajaram

court jokes

1) This one happened at the principal sessions court, Trichur, when Sri. Gopakumaran Nair was theHon: Judge. In one murder trial the defence lawyer was very much keen & adamant to see that I should give an answer to the question put forward by him as follows:- how much time it will take for the blood smear on the weapon to get completely dried up ? The Hon: judge prevented him from asking this question to an expert witness & more over the doctor is not the person to answer the question ;because it is depended on so many factors. But the defence won't give up. Finally the Hon: judge came with a solution. I will ask a question to you, If you can answer, the doctor will answer. The question goes like this." You are on a holiday all alone in your home. You are having a good quantity of clothes to wash. After the washing, you have put some clothes in the sun &some in the shade. When these two group will get completely dried up? The defence counsel had a very pathetic look & replied he can't".



2) In another case myself presented before the Principal sessions court, Kassargode. Hon: Judge Sir. James was the presiding officer. During trial the prosecution showed me a dried small branch of a tree to know whether this could produce injuries on the extremities (# of forearm & leg bones). I told him it can produce these injuries in its" original state". The judge was frowning his forehead for few seconds & suddenly began to laugh with stamping his feet on the ground& clapping his hands. He was asking the Public prosecutor whether you followed the answer. He made a comment" YOU ARE THE REAL POLICE SURGEON". What I meant was at this stage the twig is a dried peace of wood & it will only break if used with force. In its original state means when it is fresh.
After hearing the comment I was in an elated mood & answering questions put forward by both advocates. When everything was over the Hon judge was making a comment again. You have given answers to the questions put forward by both prosecutor & defence & after hearing your answers I am having certain doubts to clarify. You can get down from the defence box only after clearing all my doubts. By hearing this I felt a little bit perplexed & confused. On total I have spent more than four hrs in the witness box.
3) In another sessions case at Trichur The defence lawyer did not get any answers as anticipated to those questions put forward in his favor. At last he made a comment " your opinion as to cause of death is not correct" I replied back " in that case I would request the learned defence counsel to give a correct answer so that I will be benefited in future".

Dr.N.Rajaram

Dead man tell tales

This particular case was presented as the deceased suffering from diarrhea & he was taken to hospital & while the doctor examined him, he was found dead. The dead body was buried in Baddiudukka/Bandudukka Muslim burial ground. We reached the burial ground by 1500hrs. There was huge crowd & found it difficult to get inside. With the help of deputy superintendant of police Sri.Ponnan Bhaskaran, we managed to get inside. There was pin drop silence. No body came forward to dig the grave & we were able to hear some murmurs in the form of protest.
Immediately the deputy superintendant of police requested the head man to start the digging. Then the head man was saying” who ever had made the compliant can do the job. Then one tall lean figure came forward & started the job. After few minutes we saw him falling into the partly dug grave. Then the whole police force was yelling with rage. It is well known that only Muslims are allowed to do the last rites & also in the preparation of grave when a Muslim dies. On seeing the non-cooperative attitude of the local inhabitants, the DYSP ordered his men to complete the job. The police personnel removed their uniform & did the job well. The body was taken out & put in a wooden table. Immediately I could notice # of both angle & wrist joint. & because of erosion of soft tissues due to decomposition it was clearly visible. There was some kind of blackening (degradation of hemoglobin) indicating ante mortem nature. The above finding was also noticed by Sri. Mohandas, my assistant. His observation is superb not only with this case, but to all cases he used to assist. He needs a good compliment. The soft tissues over the neck region was completely gone . Closer examination revealed # of thyroid & cricoid cartilages. Another interesting finding was the presence of carbamate (insecticidal compound) as violet colored granules. It will be having sandy texture because the chemical is imbibed in sand. Viscera were preserved for chemical analysis & later turned out to be positive for carbamate.
Now we try to analyze what happened contrary to the first information report. The deceased was a man aged 50-60 yrs & job was selling fish. Most of the time he won’t be in the house & in his absence his wife indulged in prostitution with proper support from her own father. To begin with he was a silent spectator, later on he used to quarrel with them & one day it ended in his death. In order to escape from the crime committed they first sought the story of the deceased developing uncontrolled diarrhea & died on the way. Next they got the silent support of MULLAKA to bury the dead body in the grave.
The deceased was a brother in Bombay & he came to know of the sudden demise of his elder brother due to diarrhea. He suspected some foul play & raised his voice to find out the truth. He was immediately overpowered by the people concerned & locked in a room. Somehow he escaped & reported the matter to police. He was the man who was asked to dig the grave & later on collapsed into the grave.
The opinion that I gave was the deceased died of strangulation & poison was administered into his system prior to death. The long bone injuries could have also contributed in the causation of death.
The case for posted for trial before the Principal Sessions court Kassargode & Sri. James was the Judge & culprits were convicted.
Some interesting incidents occurred to me during trial & will narrate separatley.
Dr.n.rajaram

Antemortem hanging/?perimortem suspension

When you study cases of hanging over a period of time, suicidal cases are more common than accidental & homicidal. Perusal of literature also shows that accidental/homicidal are not uncommon. Iam going to describe one such case of hanging in which the person could have been suspended when he was alive.

One such case occurred few years ago in the Kassargode district of Kerala. Like any other case brought for medico-legal autopsy this case also came. The body was in a state of decomposition. No salivary dribble mark could be appreciated. The time since death could be >48hs &<72hrs. There was a pressure abrasion over the front & sides of neck. The cuticle over the region of pressure abrasion was not peeled off completely. In other areas it was almost peeled off. No other injury/injuries externally. On opening the abdominal cavity more than one liter of fluid blood & clot escaped. I made a search for the source of bleeding & found complete irregular laceration of liver. The laceration of liver is an unusual finding in a case of hanging. The possibility of the victim sustaining the injury by a tear of the ligature material disproportionate to the body weight is very uncommon. It can only be produced by repeated kicking or by use of some blunt weapon.
After the postmortem examination I explained to the charge Head constable that I suspect foul play & the case should be investigated well. He was about to say something & he suddenly stopped & assured me that .he will meet me another day.
Few days after he came & narrated the whole event. The deceased & his brother are settlers from KOTTAYAM. They are doing business together. Both of them are immensely rich & are having ancestral property in common. These two people controlled The whole activity of the police station. They will decide what should be done & what should not be done. Gradually there occurred business rivalry & dispute over the ancestral property. One day the elder thought of killing his younger one & for that he engaged a hired killerBy paying Rs 25,000. The hired one approached the younger brother known very well & informed the matter. On hearing this the younger one paid him Rs50,000 & asked him to kill his elder one.
With this in mind the hired killer approached the elder on a rainy night & informed him that they can a have a talk over the dispute infront of his younger brother before killing him. The elder one agreed & three of them went out.
The next day evening the elder brother’s dead body was found in a ditch without any ligature material. When the body arrived for autopsy it was in a decomposed state. According to the police the hired killer & the younger brother gave multiple kicks over the abdomen. All of them were completely drunk & they tried to hang him alive or in the peri- mortem state. Any way the person survived over a period of time as evidenced by presence of blood clot. The same Head constable wrote the same in a separate letter addressed to me stating also his token of appreciation. This letter I kept along the detailed notes in the department.
After that the Sub inspector approached me to inquire about the manner of death. I told him that it could be a case of homicide. Hearing this he tried to move away from the department by saying that it is only suicidal; but I forced him to remain there to takedown my statement & which was written by another charge police constable, because of the fact that the sub inspector informed me that his hand writing was poor.
He reached his station & informed the circle inspector that the doctor who conducted the autopsy had disclosed the manner of death. On hearing this younger brother was put behind bars. Two constables who were on duty on the night in which the younger brother was put behind bars came & expressed their gratitude to me for having proved the case by postmortem examination.
The opinion that I gave was the post mortem examination were consistent with death due to hanging & he could have sustained blunt injury abdomen prior to hanging.
Dr.N. RAJARAM

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

Two cases of fall from height turned out to be murder

& scene visit confirmed that it was a case of assault & PM disposal simulating fall from heightIam going to narrate only the history of the two cases that came for routine autopsy. But after Pm examination turned out to be homicide. 1) Body recovered from a 2nd platform in a panchayat water tank. History was he fell down from the tank. The nature of injuries & recovery of the body not from the ground but from the platform clearly indicated that it could be a case of homicide ,which turned out to be correct. H/O The person was aged 18-20 & used to occupy a position in the above platform for visualising females taking bath in the bathroom without roof attached toGovt quarters& he used to masturbate simultaneously. The peeping tom was reported to their respective husbands,. At first he was warned. But he repeated & was manhandled & killed by One JuniorEngineer,overseer & driver.
2) The wife manhandled her spouse( a drunkard) along with her two children for creating problems in the house daily . H/O was fall from height. Pm examination revealed the person couldnot sustain a fall as described in the request for postmortem examination. he had sustained contusion of neck ( a protected region)& depressed # of frontal & parietal bones with intracranail bleeding. Scene visit confirmed the findings during autopsy& three of them were arrested & tried in I additional Seesions court , TRICHUR.
dr. n.rajaram