The vaginal swab of Arushi Talwar has been lost forever but it was contaminated,not switched since the 14-year-old girls DNA was first detected by the Central Forensic Science Laboratory in the CBI headquarters in New Delhi. During their lie-detector and brain-mapping tests,Arushi Talwars parents were questioned about allegations of being involved in tampering of samples but were cleared.
Thats what the CBI is expected to tell the Supreme Court when it files its status report in the Arushi Talwar case amid fresh allegations of a cover-up and irregularities.
Tracking the journey of the swab from the Noida district hospital to its final destination,the lab in Hyderabad,reveals a trail of neglect and red-tape:
1. On May 16,2008,Noida District Hospital doctor Sunil Dore collected the vaginal swab but failed to mention this in the post mortem report.
2. The next and critical procedure of converting the swabs into a slide for forensic testing was done by pathologist Ritcha Saxena. In a handwritten report,she said no traces of semen were found in the slides.
3. After taking over the case on June 1,CBI contacted Saxena over the telephone and,sources said,she guided members of the CBI team to the drawer in her office in which the tagged slide was along with several others.
4. Saxena,when contacted,said: I was in Patna when the CBI rang me up,the slides were given to the CBI by then Chief Medical Superintendent S C Singhal in my absence. Incidentally,Singhal and Saxena have been locked in a very public dispute. Singhal says Saxena was transferred in 2005 but she didnt accept the transfer and,therefore,had no business conducting the test.
5. Once the CBI got the slides,these were tested in the lab in the CBI headquarters The labs DNA expert,B K Mahapatra,reported that the sample contained some peaks of Arushis DNA but also several other peaks of DNA of an unidentified person as well.
6. The slide was then sent to the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics in Hyderabad. This lab,too,confirmed the presence of two peaks of DNA in the slide but the sample of Arushi was found to be too weak for profiling. The final report said that the sample largely contained DNA of an unidentified person.
7. Suspecting tampering or contamination,the CBI searched Saxenas labs and retrieved over a dozen vaginal swab slides. All these samples were sent to the Hyderabad lab but none matched the unidentified DNA traced in Arushi slide.
8. The CBI questioned Dore,the UP constables and technicians. Saxena was interrogated for three days but ruling out deliberate swapping of samples,the agency did not initiate criminal action against her.
with Pragya Kaushika
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