CID wants Raudha's body exhumed

The Criminal Investigation Department yesterday made an appeal to a Rajshahi court for disinterring the body of Maldivian medical student Raudha Athif for a fresh autopsy.

Inspector Asmaul Hoque of CID filed a petition in this regard with the court of Metropolitan Magistrate Mahbubur Rahman.

The court may hear the petition today, said Nurul Islam, additional deputy commissioner of the prosecution at the court.

Talking to The Daily Star, Nazmul Karim Khan, special superintendent of CID in Rajshahi, said a second autopsy was necessary because the previous one ruled her death as suicide, but her father rejected the report and claimed that she was murdered.

He said previous police investigations into her death and available information suggested that it was a suicide, and CID now wanted the body re-examined by a "neutral medical board".

“We want no discrepancies in our investigation, and her body is important evidence,” said Khan.

Raudha Athif, a 2nd year student of Islami Bank Medical College in Rajshahi, was found dead at her dormitory on March 29. One of her classmates at the dormitory found her hanging from the ceiling, and some of them took her down before police went to the scene.

The 21-year-old, who was featured in the cover of Vogue magazine as a model, was buried at Hetomkhan Graveyard in Rajshahi city on April 1.

Police recorded an unnatural case filed by the college authorities on the day of her death, while her father Mohamed Athif, a physician, lodged a murder case with a Rajshahi court accusing a classmate on April 10.

CID officials said they collected reports from previous investigators into both cases and began a new investigation.

Yesterday, a CID team led by Additional Special Superintendent Kazi Muhammad Shafi Iqbal visited Raudha's room at the women's dormitory of the college. The room had been sealed off since her death.

They took measurements of various items in the room including the door of her room at foreigners' block.

The CID looked into two aspects -- whether a woman of Raudha's height could hang herself from the ceiling fan using a scarf and a chair, and whether the door could be pushed open from outside, said Shafi Iqbal.

Measurements show that she would be able to hang herself, and the door could be pushed open from outside, he added. They also found that the door is the only exit from her room.

“We saw possibilities of her committing suicide. It does not mean we found that she committed suicide. We are still investigating the case,” he told this correspondent over the phone.