Sunil Dore, the doctor who says he collected the vaginal swab during the post mortem of Arushi Talwar, wasn’t experienced enough to record this in the post mortem report. This despite the fact that he did three autopsies that day.

This startling claim has been made by S C Singhal, then Chief Medical Superintendent of the Noida District Hospital.

And comes amid fresh revelations of alleged lapses in the probe, including the possibility that the vaginal swab sent to the forensic lab was not Arushi’s.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Singhal, who is now retired, said: “Dore joined us 10 days before he performed the post-mortem (on May 16, 2008). He was transferred from the Health Department and did not have that much of experience fulfilling technicalities in post-mortem. He did hand over the two slides of the vaginal swab taken from Arushi’s body to the police the same day.”

Records at the Noida District Hospital, accessed by The Indian Express, show that a vaginal swab was procured for pathological tests.

But the post mortem report of Arushi does not mention that vaginal swabs were taken.

Said Dore: “It is the prerogative of a doctor to decide what sample to take or not. I took the samples for the benefit of the case. I had the liberty of not taking it but I did take it and handed it over to the police. Something has definitely gone wrong somewhere but I have done no wrong. I admit that there could be some mistakes in writing but in practical, everything was done as per the procedure,” Dore told The Indian Express.

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