- Docs tampered with post-mortem report. CBI brings out facts
- Those in power too sabotaged probe against accused
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, June 22: In a bold decision, the Jammu and Kashmir administration today sacked two doctors from Government services for conniving with Pakistan-based terror groups and fabricating evidence to make death by drowning of two women Asiya Jan and Neelofar of Shopian as rape-cum-murder with a view to create unrest in the Kashmir valley which eventually lasted seven months in 2009 in which seven civilians lost their lives and 103 others were injured.
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Two women, Asiya Jan and Neelofar, were found dead in a stream in Shopian on May 30, 2009, leading to allegations which gained credibility due to tampering of evidence by the two doctors that they were raped and murdered by security personnel. Four policemen were arrested in connection with the case.
The doctors dismissed from services by the Government of Jammu and Kashmir today include Dr Nighat Shaheen Chilloo, who was working as Consultant Gynaecologist at Sub District Hospital in Government Health Department at Chadoora, Budgam and Dr Bilal Ahmad Dalal, Medical Officer posted at NTPHC, Government Health Department Takiya Imam, Shopian.
The two doctors have been dismissed by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha under Article 311 of the Constitution. Under this provision, the Government officers can be dismissed summarily without any enquiry.
The LG is satisfied after considering the facts and circumstances of the case and on the basis of the information available, that the activities of Dr Dalal and Dr Chilloo are such as to warrant their dismissal from service, two official orders issued today by the Government, stated.
“Both the doctors have emerged as key players in hatching conspiracy against the Indian State at the behest of Pakistan and terror outfits with a view to generate unrest and keep the pot of militancy boiling in the Kashmir valley.
The unrest also led to the unceremonious exit of top police brass including the then Special Director General of Police Dr Ashok Bhan and the then Inspector General (Kashmir) B Srinivasan. In addition, four police officers including a district SP were arrested during the initial investigations and put in jail. However, the CBI investigation later revealed that they were falsely implicated.
As per the officials, though the CBI did a fantastic job but the justice remained elusive as even the local CBI Counsel was threatened by the terror outfits and their assets not to pursue the case. The CBI investigation also exposed the devious and diabolical role of specific lawyers, doctors and others who subverted and obstructed the justice. The CBI findings played crucial role in bringing down the street violence and also in pushing back false narrative, they said.
The CBI’s local Counsel repeatedly failed to appear and represent the Agency’s case in the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir resulting in an adverse order that had grave national security implications. In fact, out of 40 hearings, he appeared only on six hearings because he was threatened by the terror ecosystem ruling the roost prior to August 2019.
Absence of the CBI’s local Counsel went unnoticed and unaddressed for a shocking period of around eight years and three months.
“The local CBI Counsel’s absence facilitated in saving 13 accused including six doctors, five lawyers and two civilians especially Dr Nighat from being tried for creating false evidence such as bogus post-mortems, maliciously obtaining biological samples of body fluids (vaginal swabs and spermatozoa) of unknown persons and fraudulently placing it to be of deceased women, criminally intimidating persons to give false evidence and all of this was done to implicate security forces including police personnel for rape and murder which never happened,” the officials said.
Investigations further revealed that departmental probe against the doctors for hatching biggest crime was also sabotaged by the elements in power at that time, they added.
“The Shopian episode has emerged to be a classic textbook case study of how Pakistan and its proxies in J&K mobilized their deep assets within several societal and Government institutions to fabricate a completely false story, give credence to falsehood by creating false evidence including a totally bogus post-mortem, going to the extent of replacing biological samples to falsely implicate completely innocent police officers and thereby subvert and obstruct the justice system of a proportion that is unprecedented in the annals of criminal justice statement,” the officials said.
They added that Dr Nighat, Dr Billal and many others were the lynchpin of this subversion and obstruction of justice. In Shopian case, they acted on behalf of Pakistan and terrorist groups to create unrest in the Valley which continued for seven months from June-December 2009, witnessed 42 strike calls floated by groups like Hurriyat Conference and resulted in widespread rioting in the Valley during which 600 law and order incidents were reported, 251 FIRs were registered, seven civilians lost their lives and 103 others were injured and en estimated Rs 6000 crore worth of business was lost.
Later, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took over the probe and found that the two women were never raped nor murdered and that Dr Dalal and Dr Chilloo had tampered with the evidence at the behest of elements inimical to India to make the case of drowning by death as rape and murder.
Dr Dalal and Dr Chilloo were among 13 people who were charge-sheeted by the CBI in December 2009. A hearing in the case is yet to take place because almost all of the accused had approached the Jammu and Kashmir High Court separately.
The two doctors have been charge-sheeted by the CBI for fabricating evidence and twisting the accidental deaths due to drowning as rape and murder.
Dalal was the first doctor to conduct an autopsy of the bodies, whereas Chilloo was part of the second team of doctors that conducted post-mortem examination, the officials said.
In a gross violation of medical ethics, Chilloo took vaginal swabs of two women admitted in her hospital and projected them to be of Asiya Jan, who she had claimed was raped and murdered, they said.
However, an AIIMS forensic team comprising Dr T D Dogra and Dr Anupama Raina got the bodies exhumed and found that Asiya Jan’s hymen was intact. The same reports were part of the CBI charge sheet, they said.
In December 2009, the CBI concluded that the two women were neither raped nor murdered.
The CBI filed the charge sheet against six doctors, five lawyers and two civilians, including the brother of one of the deceased women, for fabricating evidence.
Five police officials were arrested in connection with the case and the subsequent protests.
The 66-page CBI report absolved the policemen, who were in jail for around 47 days in connection with the case and against whom a state-appointed judicial commission had levelled charges of destruction of evidence, of all the charges.
The CBI report accused the 13 accused of hatching a criminal conspiracy to stir public anger against the security forces.
Since neither rape nor murder took place, the CBI report concluded that there was no case. It said the lawyers had hatched a conspiracy and forced two persons to become witnesses.
The CBI report gave a detailed account of how the two were forced by the lawyers and some of the family members of Shakeel Ahanger, the husband of one of the deceased women.
The agency also rejected the theory of the Majlis-s-Maashwarat, an amalgam of separatist groups that spearheaded the agitation in Shopian, that the two women were abducted, raped and murdered when they had gone to their orchard on May 29, 2009.
According to the CBI, the two women drowned while trying to cross the river.
AIIMS doctors who conducted post-mortem examination on the exhumed bodies found the same diatoms (algae) in the lungs of two women that exist in the area where the bodies were found.
The CBI probe found that both teams of doctors lied in the post-mortem reports. The first team of doctors said Asiya Jan died due to cardiovascular arrest and Neelofar died due to neurogenic shock.
The second team of doctors from Pulwama claimed Asiya Jan was sexually assaulted and died due to haemorrhage and shock caused by bleeding from multiple injuries. Neelofar, the team had claimed, died due to neurogenic shock following sexual intercourse.
The CBI report quoted the medical opinion of AIIMS doctors who conclusively stated that the deaths took place “due to asphyxia as a result of ante-mortem drowning”. They said the lacerated wound on Asiya Jan’s forehead was not sufficient to cause death.
Besides Dr Dalal and Dr Chilloo; Dr Nazia, Dr Ghulam Qadir Sofi and Dr Maqbool Mir mentioned such false facts in their different post mortem reports which supported the theory of rape and murder of the women whereas it has been conclusively provided by the findings of AIIMS/CFSL New Delhi that the deceased women had died due to ante-mortem drowning besides there being no evidence to support any attempt to rape or rape.
“Investigations showed that there were four sets of post-mortem reports having variations in all of them and all of which had been signed by Dr Nazia. By signing false post-mortem reports, she was equally liable along with Dr Dalal.
False post-mortem reports had been prepared by the doctors in connivance with Dr Ghulam Mohammad Paul.
“Investigations demonstrated that Dr Bilal Ahmad Dalal, Dr Nazi Hassan, Dr Nighat Shaheen, Dr Ghulam Qadir Sofi, Dr Maqbool Mir and Dr Ghulam Mohammad Paul though being public servants were party to a criminal conspiracy to prepare false post-mortem reports, wrongful replied to questionnaires and fabricated/fudged slides with an object to defame police and security forces,” the officials said.
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