Nail samples of Chetan Anand’s sons taken in murder case

MUMBAI, APRIL 1: The Mumbai Police today collected nail clippings of the two sons of Chetan Anand in the case of murder of actress Priya R...

MUMBAI, APRIL 1: The Mumbai Police today collected nail clippings of the two sons of Chetan Anand in the case of murder of actress Priya Rajvansh and also got a second post mortem done on her body at JJ hospital. Rajvansh, who was found dead on March 27, was a close personal friend of the late director Chetan Anand was staying at the latter’s house.

Ketan and Vivek, Chetan’s sons, were brought to the Nagpada police hospital for taking the samples of their nails. Both the brothers refused to give their blood samples, sources said. The police took nail and blood samples of the maid servant, Mala, and the watchman, Dattu. Senior police officials explained this away as just a routine procedure and added that no arrests have been made.

Nail clippings are generally taken when the murder victim suffers scracthes during the scuffle with the assailants to see whether there are any traces of blood or skin of the victim under the nails. If any blood traces are found, this is then matched with the blood group of the victim to see whether they are the same, so that the identity of the assailants can be confirmed. “Since there are no witnesses to the crime, we can only go by the process of elimination and circumstantial evidence,” explained a senior police officer.

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Even as the Anand sons were in Nagpada for giving their nail samples, the police, in a surprise move, requested a second post mortem, even though the first had clearly given the cause of death as asphyxia due to strangulation.’ The body was brought to JJ Hospital and a panel of four senior doctors — police surgeon Dr GV Uppe, dean of JJ Hospital, Dr AC Mohanty, lecturer in forensic medicine (JJ Hospital) Dr BG Chikalkar and professor of medicine, Dr M Lanjewar — conducted the autopsy. Though all the findings of the first report were confirmed, the cause of death has been kept pending and the organs have been sent for histopathology examination to rule out any history of illness, sources said.

However, forensic sources explained that the presence of the prominent ligature mark around the neck is more than enough to confirm the cause of death. Also, police inquiries with the family physician revealed that the actress did not suffer from any illness and there does not appear to be any other reason for her death.

The first autopsy report showed that Rajvansh had been strangulated. There were injuries on the arms and head, which further showed that she had tried to defend herself. Her body was found in a sitting position with all her jewellery intact, which ruled out robbery as motive, the police confirmed.

It appears that the police have missed some important clue while making the initial investigations in the matter and may have been looking for specific forensic leads from the second postmortem. Vijay Mahajan, senior inspector, however, said they were looking for additional information about the manner in which the crime was committed.