It has been confirmed today in the Omkar Road murder trial where it has been confirmed that the victim, at the time of the alleged murder was a 14 to 16 year old girl and not a 22 old woman as highlighted earlier.

A Police Forensic Pathologist took the witness stand this morning to rely her opinions on the post mortem findings which were conducted by a former pathologist who has now left the country.

Dr. Hektaya Jean-Parera after analyzing the post mortem report confirmed that the victim died due to asphyxiation due to manual strangulation or throttling.

She stated that the evidence shows that the victim could not have drowned but died due to strangulation.

However, Dr. Parera's opinion on the time of death varied from what was started by the original pathologist who estimated the time of death to be 3 to 5 days before the post mortem was conducted. Dr. Parera's view was that the victim must have died at least 7 to 14 days before post mortem.

The victim is alleged to have been murdered on June 8th 2008 and the post mortem was conducted on June 18th.

She also maintained that the injury which caused the victims death could not have been caused by being hit on the back of the head as the injuries are consistent with manual strangulation.

During cross examination, she also stated that sometimes, it takes very little force to strangle someone.

The case will resume on Monday.


Story by: Roneel Lal