Mystery over murder victim's body

Late Sunday evening, the police sent the partially burnt body of a 25-year-old woman for post mortem. Shiva Reddy, a resident of Swami Vivekananda Layout, Hebbugodi stated in his complaint that his wife Tulasi (25) had been murdered and the culprits in an attempt to
destroy the evidence had packed the body in a carton and burnt it.

Incidentally, three houses away from Shiva Reddy’s house, a 13-year-old girl Kavitha went missing from Saturday evening. She was a student of 8th Standard at BES school.

The jurisdictional police registered both the cases and started investigation. On one side, the parents of the missing girl made umpteen trips to the police station to find out the progress. On the other hand, evidence proved that the body found in Shiva Reddy’s house, was not that of a married woman but a teenaged girl. The constable, who accompanied the body for post mortem, apparently tried his best to contact the higher-ups but failed. Meanwhile, pressure mounted from the relatives to hand over the body. The body was finally handed over and the final rites were also performed.

Before sending the body for post mortem, personal effects - a chain, pendant and clothes - were kept in police custody.

On Monday evening, the police got a bolt from the blue when the missing girl’s parents identified the personal effects as that of their daughter and started pestering to see the body.

Now, the cops are perplexed as to who has taken them for a ride. Added to this, a neighbour disclosed that he had seen Shiva Reddy and his wife on Sunday night.
This episode, as a retired police commissioner put it, exposed the police department’s callousness in handling missing complaints and apathy towards procedural delicacies of autopsy.