IIT-Kharagpur student was possibly shot, hints second forensic report
The partially decomposed body of third year student Faizan Ahmed, 24, was found in his hostel room in West Bengal’s Paschim Medinipur district on October 14 2022
A 24-year-old student at IIT-Kharagpur, who was found dead in his hostel room two years ago, was possibly hit with some heavy blunt object, stabbed and shot by the accused, the second autopsy report has suggested in the sensational case that was first adjudged a suicide but later alleged to be a murder.
The partially decomposed body of third year student Faizan Ahmed, 24, was found in his hostel room in West Bengal’s Paschim Medinipur district on October 14 2022. The dead body was taken to their Assam residence and it was buried in Amolapatty Kabarstan (burial ground) in Dibrugarh town.
College authorities initially said that he died by suicide while the family members alleged that he was murdered. His parents filed a writ petition in Calcutta high court, which last year allowed the exhumation of Faizan’s body and observed there were several loopholes in the investigation.
“The victim was hit with blunt objects on his head, stabbed and shot right below the left ear,” said Ajoy Kumar Gupta, a retired forensic expert from the West Bengal crime investigation department who was appointed by the Calcutta high court for his opinion on the likely cause of death of the victim.
Even though the first autopsy and police reports failed to conclude how the victim died, a second post mortem done by Gupta, on the orders of the high court, suggested homicide.
In his preliminary findings in June 2023, Gupta had stated that death was caused due to profuse bleeding causing haemorrhagic shock. He was punched and hit with blunt objects on his chest and head.
In May this year, Gupta submitted another report after he received the reports of the central forensic science laboratory.
“While the right temporal styloid process (a bone just below the ear) was missing from the root, the left styloid process had become black. There was blood near the mandible of the lower jaw and second cervical vertebrae. This suggests that the victim was stabbed from the right and shot with the barrel of the firearm pressed against body (below the left ear),” Gupta said on Thursday.
The first autopsy was carried out on October 15 before handing over the body to his parents. The second autopsy was conducted in Kolkata in May 2023.The final report of Gupta’s investigation is likely to be submitted before the Calcutta high court next month.