Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 31: Pakistan has reportedly declined to provide autopsy report of Indian prisoner Chamel Singh despite a reminder to this effect by the External Affairs Ministry and instead came out with a denial that Singh hadn’t been tortured to death.
“The autopsy report, conducted on Chamel Singh at Jinnah Hospital, was mandatory. It should have been handed over to the Indian authorities at Wagah border in Amritsar district of Punjab along with the body,’’ official sources said.
“The denial of autopsy report at the time of handing over the body was a legal flaw and appeared to have been committed deliberately to hide marks of torture on the body of Chamel Singh,’’ they said.
The External Affairs Ministry had taken up the issue of Chamel Singh’s torture and delay in handing over his autopsy report with Pakistani counterparts. However, the report hasn’t been handed over as yet.
Autopsy on Chamel Singh’s body, who had been beaten to death at Kot Lakhpat Rai Jail in Lahore, Pakistan on January 15, had been conducted at Jinnah Hospital before his body was handed over to the family at Wagah border nearly two months after his killing.
As already reported, the post-mortem on Chamel Singh’s body conducted at Government Medical College, Jammu by a Board of Doctors had confirmed marks of torture and removal of vital organs from the body.
Doctors at the State-run Jinnah Hospital declared Chamel Singh, said to be in his sixties, dead on arrival on January 15. He was serving a five-year prison term for alleged involvement in espionage though reports here said that he had inadvertently crossed over to other side from Pargwal, a village he hailed from, in Akhnoor tehsil of this district.
Even Pakistani newspapers like The Express Tribune had reported that marks of injury had been found on Singh’s body during an autopsy on March 13.
The autopsy was done nearly two months after Singh’s death and Pakistani officials have not given any explanation for the delay.
Meanwhile, Pakistani authorities today rejected as “malicious Indian propaganda” reports that Chamel Singh had died after allegedly being assaulted by jail staff here, saying his death was caused by a sudden stroke and heart attack.
Mohsin Rafiq Chaudhry, Senior Superintendent of Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore, described as “concocted news with ulterior motives” about Singh being tortured to death.
He said Singh had suddenly suffered a stroke in the presence of other Indian prisoners in the compound of barrack No. 4 of Kot Lakhpat Rai Jail. Singh was immediately rushed to the nearby Jinnah Hospital but he succumbed to a heart attack on the way to the hospital, Chaudhry said.
However, Tehseen Khan, a Christian lawyer who completed a 42-month sentence for fraud at the jail, claimed that Chamel Singh died after being beaten by prison staff.
“On January 15, I saw some three jail staff beating Chamel Singh over some issue. He was beaten severely and I think he died because of this,” Khan had said.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel