New Delhi, Sep 26 “How can a body be cremated along with belongings,” a Delhi court asked on Saturday as it came down heavily on Gurugram police for not following mandatory legal procedures in the handling and cremation of real estate sales professional Yuvraj Singh Manchanda’s body.
Judicial Magistrate Rahul Jain described the sequence of events as a “shocking state of affairs” and questioned the police over several lapses, including failure to inform the executive magistrate about the inquest, preserve the deceased’s belongings and viscera, videograph the post-mortem and promptly upload details of the unidentified body on ZIPNET, the police network used by Delhi, Haryana and other northern states to exchange information about missing persons and unidentified bodies.
“How can a body be cremated along with the belongings? How can the law not be followed,” the court asked, after senior advocate Amit Prasad, appearing for Manchanda’s sister and petitioner Harsimran, submitted that a burnt watch and kada were recovered from the cremation site.
The court was hearing Harsimran’s plea seeking preservation and production of records and digital material concerning her brother’s death.
It reserved its order on the application and said it would consider the apprehensions raised by her.
Questioning a police officer from Gurugram’s Badshahpur police station, the judge asked why the nearest executive magistrate or sub-divisional magistrate was not informed on the second day after recovery of the unidentified body for the inquest proceedings.
“Isn’t it the norm to inform the nearest executive magistrate… regarding inquest proceedings for the unidentified body? Why wasn’t it carried out,” the court asked.
The court also questioned the failure to put details of the unidentified body on ZIPNET.
“Do you not upload details of an unidentified body on ZIPNET in cases of murder or otherwise? Isn’t that the procedure followed by Gurugram Police,” it asked.
The judge further raised serious questions over the post-mortem process, noting that two reports appeared to contain materially different findings.
While one report mentioned bullet injuries, the other attributed the cause of death to asphyxia due to antemortem drowning.
“The postmortem reports are different… How can such basic procedures be skipped,” the court asked, while also taking note that the viscera had not been preserved.
The court rebuked the police officer for failing to provide concrete answers to its questions and observed that the lapses had resulted in Manchanda’s family being deprived of the right to perform his last rites.
“The complainant not only lost her brother by cremating his body, you snatched away her family’s right to dutifully carry out his last rites,” the judge remarked.
Prasad alleged that the manner in which the body was handled amounted to destruction of evidence and was intended to “save the culprits”.
He submitted that the court had ancillary powers to issue directions concerning preservation and production of material connected with the deceased.
The court had on Thursday said Gurugram Police had “botched up” the case and described the handling of Manchanda’s body as a “complete hotch potch”.
According to Delhi Police, Manchanda was last seen on September 6 after dropping his sisters at Lajpat Nagar market before leaving for a meeting in Gurugram.
Police allege that his former colleague Anya Vats and her partner Sanyam Sachdeva murdered him the same night and drove around Gurugram for two days with his body in Vats’ SUV before dumping it in a sewer on September 8.
Gurugram Police recovered the body on September 10 and, according to the sister’s plea, cremated it as an unidentified person on September 14, despite an FIR concerning Manchanda’s disappearance having been registered at Lajpat Nagar police station on September 11.
The plea alleges that photographs and details of the unidentified body were not uploaded on ZIPNET between September 10 and September 14 and were uploaded only on September 16.
Vats and Sachdeva were arrested from Kaichi Dham in Uttarakhand on September 16. Delhi Police has alleged that the accused disclosed details of the murder and disposal of the body during interrogation.
Delhi Police has also said Manchanda’s family approached it on September 11 after the accused allegedly used his phone to send messages to relatives, creating an impression that he was alive.
(PTI News)
