Rediff On The NeT: Tanwar murder case exhibits sent for DNA testing

Tanwar murder case exhibits sent for DNA testing

Two blood-stained exhibits recovered during the investigation into the Tanwar murder case have been sent for DNA testing, the Delhi high court was informed on Monday.

Giving an update on the investigation conducted by the special investigating team set up on April 2 to probe the murder of the Central Government Health Scheme doctor in October 1993, Delhi government standing counsel S K Aggarwal said the exhibits were sent to the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad on April 17 and that the report is expected within two or three weeks.

A division bench consisting of Acting Chief Justice Mahinder Narain and Justice S K Mahajan directed that once the CCMB sends the DNA report, it be placed on the court's record.

The two exhibits found were a blood-stained cement slab and a metal pipe recovered during raids on the house of Ratnakar Mudgil, a friend of Dr Tanwar, the court was told.

The bench directed the police to submit a copy of Dr Tanwar's post-mortem report within a week and posted the next hearing for May 28. The bench also sought a better status report, with "more substance", than that filed by the police on April 4. The first report, they pointed out, did not even mention if any fingerprints were found.

The report stated that Mudgil was questioned on April 21, 1995 and his house was raided on April 24. A second floor room of his house was sealed after drops of what appeared to be blood were found there.

The pieces of floor and a plastic pipe were taken into possession the next day. These were sent to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory which confirmed the presence of blood on the cement slab and the plastic pipe but could not establish the blood group. Dr Tanwar's blood group was ''O positive''.

The CFSL report was received on April 8 and the exhibits were sent to Hyderabad on April 17 for DNA testing, Aggarwal said.

The Delhi police status report said Mudgil and his twin sons Neeraj and Dheeraj were interrogated and some ''contradictions'' in their statements were being verified.

Mudgil, a Bank of India employee, came to know Dr Tanwar while working at the Khan market branch of the bank where the doctor had opened an account.

Mudgil, who had attended Dr Tanwar's marriage in 1977, also used to visit the Pandara road dispensary, where Dr Tanwar was posted, to get medicines.

Dr Tanwar disappeared on October 28, 1993 and his severed head, right arm, left arm and left leg, wrapped in separate polythene bags and packed in a canvas bag were found the next day outside the Laxmibai Nagar house of Sudha Rani Sanyal, a nurse working at the Pandara road dispensary.

In November 1993, the severed right leg was also recovered under the Laxmibai Nagar flyover, also in a polythene bag.

Petitioner All India Young Lawyers Association has contended in its public interest petition in the high court that the case be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation as the police was not investigating the matter due to ''political pressure'' . It has also prayed that the court monitor the probe.

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