Hindu medical student Nimrita Kumari Chandani was raped before being murdered, confirmed the final postmortem report issued by Pakistan’s Chandka Medical College Hospital on Wednesday, Pakistani media reports said on Thursday. According to the hospital’s Woman Medico-Legal Officer Amrita, the student’s death was caused by suffocation as asphyxial signs — caused by a ligature on the neck — were seen during the autopsy.
Geo TV cited the autopsy report which said: “The ligature marks also tally with the information. Such signs are produced either in strangulation or hanging and are to be ascertained through circumstantial evidence as corroborative at the crime scene by state investigation authorities.”
The report also stated that a DNA test confirmed the presence of a male DNA profile indicated from semen residue on Nimrita’s clothes while a vaginal swab tested positive for a forced sexual act. A final year student at Bibi Aseefa Dental College, Nimrita Kumari was found dead under mysterious circumstances in her hostel room on September 16.
But even before the probe began, Larkana Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University Vice-Chancellor Aneela Atta Ur Rahman claimed that the medical student had committed suicide. However, Nimrita’s brother Vishal insisted that his sister had been killed as she was neither depressed nor was she a person who would take her own life.
Nimrita’s death triggered massive province-wide protests following which the Sindh government ordered a judicial inquiry into the matter. Sindh High Court later directed Larkana District and Sessions Judge to supervise the murder probe which is currently underway.