Salman Khan house firing: HC allows second post-mortem of accused who died in police custody

Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday allowed a second post-mortem examination of Anuj, who died in police custody following his arrest in a case related to the firing outside Bollywood superstar Salman Khan’s residence in Mumbai.

The direction came on a petition filed by Anuj’s mother Reeta Devi, who sought a fresh examination.

The court of Justice Vinod S Bhardwaj asked the petitioner to hand over the body to the Guru Gobind Singh Medical College in Faridkot on or before May 10.

The court disposed of the petition without commenting on the merits of the case or impleading the state of Maharashtra with a direction to the Punjab government to conduct a second post-mortem examination of Anuj.

On April 14, two motorbike-borne people opened fire outside Salman Khan’s residence in the Bandra area of Mumbai.

Four people, including Anuj, were arrested in connection with the case.

Kumar, who was accused of supplying firearms and bullets, was arrested on April 26 from Punjab and remanded to police custody till April 30.

A resident of Punjab’s Fazilka, Kumar was found dead in the toilet of the lock-up of the crime branch in the commissionerate complex at Crawford Market here on May 1.

The petitioner’s counsel Davinder Singh Khurana submitted that the body of Anuj was handed over to the petitioner after a post-mortem examination.

Khurana submitted that the petitioner suspected that her son had been eliminated under a conspiracy and that to rule out any possibility of an unfair play, it was essential that the post-mortem be re-conducted.

The state counsel had contended that the petition was misconceived and there was no cogent reason or tangible ground for a second post-mortem.