Versova siblings case: Cops seek tehsildar, health dept nod to exhume body

Going a step ahead in investigations into the mysterious death of the Chougle siblings on July 3-4, the Versova police on Wednesday wrote to the local tehsildar and the health department seeking their permission to exhume the body of 27-year old Rameez Chougle.

The health department will now decide the date to exhume the body after examining if the police will be able to get the particular part of his body for post-mortem to help in the investigations. The police had last week written to the collector's office seeking permission for exhuming Rameez's body.

A team of four doctors, in their recently submitted report, said a fresh post-mortem needed to be conducted to ascertain the exact cause of death of the siblings, the police said.

On August 22, it had acquired the go ahead from their parents to exhume Rameez's body. The police officers said they will go ahead with the post-mortem once they get the nod from the health department.

Rehab's earlier post-mortem report had stated phosphide poisoning as cause of death. Traces of aluminium phosphide were found in her stomach and lungs. On July 3, Rameez was rushed to hospital after he complained of sickness, hours after a pest control exercise in their residence. He was declared dead at the hospital. Rehab then showed similar symptoms and was admitted to Criticare Hospital, where she died within 24 hours.

While three suspects were arrested for the deaths, the police are still looking for a fourth person in the case who allegedly conducted the pest control exercise. Police said the fourth accused, a Bandra resident identified as Salim was employed with the pest-control contractor of the Chougle residence, Rukshar Almekar.

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