In a new twist to the alleged rape and murder of two women in Shopian, a doctor who prepared the vaginal slides of the victims has told the CBI that no samples from the duo had ever been taken.
The doctor, who was a part of the second postmortem team from Pulwama district hospital, was questioned by the CBI team camping here during which she told the investigators that no vaginal swab was ever taken of the two victims -- Neelofar (22) and Aasiya (17), official sources said on Sunday.
The doctor broke down during the questioning and narrated the entire sequence of events to the CBI officials, the sources said.
The sources claimed that the doctor had taken samples from gloves used in the gynaecological ward of the district hospital and prepared a slide which showed presence of semen.
The CBI conducted searches at the hospital late Saturday night and seized various pairs of gloves and records available at the hospital, they said.
While the CBI was officially tightlipped about the case, sources said the lady doctor informed the CBI that she had done this because public pressure was mounting.
The CBI team which searched the hospital on Saturday night was accompanied by the doctor, they said.
The exhumation of bodies was expected to be undertaken on Monday and the family members had also given permission for the same. PTI
The CBI took over the investigation into the case on September 17 and a team headed by Deputy Inspector General Satish Golcha have been camping here since then. The agency's Special Director S C Sinha had also visited here recently and taken stock of the situation.
Last month it came to light that key forensic evidence relating to the vaginal swabs of the two victims did not match with that of -- Neelofar and Aasiya.
The Special Investigating Team headed by Farooq Ahmed, at present Inspector General of Police (Kashmir), had sent these to CFSL for making a DNA profile of the tissue cells present in slides.
According to the daily diary of the case, the slides, prepared inside the district hospital in Pulwama, were taken to the residence of the doctor, questioned by the CBI, where it was sealed and handed over to the FSL.
It may be mentioned that doctor in the first medical team -- Nazia Hassan, had deposed before a one-man Justice Jan Commission stating that she could not conduct examination of vagina of the victims because of 'rigor mortis' (stiffness in the body after death).
The second lady doctor had stunned everyone by claiming that she had been able to take the vaginal swab and also prepare the slides for forensic examination.
Ahead of the CBI investigations, the state Government had appointed Commission headed by Justice (retd) Muzzafar Jan.
Bodies of Neelofar and her sister-in-law Asiya were recovered from a stream on May 30 after they went missing in town the previous evening. PTI
