CID for exhuming body of Maldivian model Raudha Athif

Criminal Investigation Department (CID) today filed a petition with a Rajshahi court for exhuming the body of Maldivian medical student Raudha Athif for another autopsy.

Inspector Asmaul Hoque of CID, in a petition submitted to court of Metropolitan Magistrate Mahbubur Rahman, told that Raudha’s body needs to be exhumed from her grave, said Nurul Islam, additional deputy commissioner (prosecution) of Rajshahi court.

The court, however, was yet to hear the petition, he said.

Raudha’s second autopsy is necessary as previous autopsy said she had committed suicide while her father rejected it and claimed that she was murdered, Nazmul Karim Khan, special superintendent of CID in Rajshahi, told our Rajshahi correspondent.

CID wants the body to be re-examined by a “neutral medical board,” Khan said.

“We want no gap in our investigation and her body is an important evidence”, he added.

Raudha Athif, a second-year student of Islami Bank Medical College in Rajshahi, was found dead at her dormitory room on March 29. One of her classmates at the dormitory found her hanging from the ceiling.

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

Police recorded an unnatural death case filed by the college authority 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 of both the cases filed over the death and have begun their investigation.

A CID team, led by Additional Special Superintendent Kazi Muhammad Shafi Iqbal, visited Raudha’s room, which has been sealed since her death, at the college’s women’s dormitory this afternoon.

They collected information including her roommate’s finger print, the correspondent said.