GMC's concluding forensic report pins cause on drowning and asphyxia
blurb:
GMC’s final verdict on the cause of death rests on the findings of viscera test, diatom test and DNA test on a bloodstained vest from CFSL, Hyderabad, as well as on the two autopsies conducted at GMC in the initial stages of the investigation
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The long-awaited final forensic report of the Forensic Medicine department of the Goa Medical College, Bambolim in Fr Bismarque case is finally out in the public domain with the verdict that it was death due to drowning and asphyxia.
Officials of Crime Branch of Goa Police on Tuesday disclosed that it had shared with GMC doctors the reports of viscera test, diatom test and DNA test on a bloodstained vest recovered from the sluice gate, where Bismarque’s body was found, received from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Hyderabad.
GMC’s final verdict on the cause of death rests on the findings of these reports as well as on the two autopsies conducted at GMC in the initial stages of the investigation.
The Crime Branch had received the DNA report from CFSL, Hyderabad on December 31. The report stated that no blood was found from any of the exhibits sent and as a result, no DNA could be extracted. The red marks on the vest, in other words, were not blood stains.
The diatom test report had previously ruled out all possible theories of Bismarque being murdered in one water-body and then his body being dumped into another water-body, where it was later found.
The viscera report had ruled out presence of common drugs and other suspicious substances. In addition to this, no blunt force trauma was detected on the body, in congruence with the earlier two autopsies.
It may be recalled that the first post mortem report had pinned the cause of death as asphyxia due to drowning and the second autopsy had ruled out ante-mortem physical injury. Both the autopsies were conducted by the forensic department of GMC.
Following this, investigation team had sent the viscera samples to CFSL around mid-November, with a request to hasten the procedure.
The first report, after the physio-chemical test on the viscera of Bismarque Dias, had arrived on December 11. It had ruled out presence of suspicious substances in the body further strengthening the present line of police investigation.
Apart from the forensic report, a lie detector test is also set to be conducted on Daryl Vaz (18), one of the boys who accompanied Bismarque on the night of November 5 when he went missing.
While JMFC, Panaji gave its nod to the application to conduct the test on Vaz after the boy and his family consented to it, the Juvenile Court turned down the application of the Crime Branch to conduct the lie-detector test on the other boy, a minor.
Sources disclosed that lie-detector test could be conducted this month at the polygraph testing centre at Gandhinagar, Gujarat or at either of two similar such centers, one of which is located at Hyderabad.
Report of the lie-detector test is likely to offer another decisive thrust to the ongoing investigation.
