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16. The investigation was entrusted by the High Court of Andhra Pradesh to the CBI vide order dated 21st March 2002 passed in Writ Petitions Nos. 4054 and 4329 of 2002.

17. Accordingly, CBI registered an FIR dated 28th March 2002 in Crime No.RC-1/S/2002/CBI/SCB/Chennai for offences punishable under Section 302 IPC.

18. On 26th March 2002, the High Court of Andhra Pradesh directed the Director, Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (“CDFD”) to conduct a DNA test on the basis of swabs collected from APFSL and submit a report to the Court.

Q.5 Whether there was any sexual assault in this case. Ans. The PM Report no.434/2022 (Annexure E), APFSL report no. SER/202/2002 dated 27.2.20202 (Annexure-I) and photographs (Annexure-F) do not indicate any evidence of sexual assault in this case.

Q6, As the opinions given in this case by the hospital authorities and the expert committee are in contradiction with the opinion of the doctor who conducted the PM, whose opinion is wrong and whether such a wrong opinion was given by the concerned doctor/doctors by deliberately twisting the facts or was it due to professional negligence or was it a genuine bonafide mistake, which can occur m such a case?

In view of some doubts about the genuineness of the vaginal swabs and viscera of the deceased which were reported to be in the custody of APFSL the Hon'ble High Court felt it appropriate to get a DNA test done. The APFSL accordingly sent the samples for the said tests to the Centre for DNA Finger Printing and Diagnostics (CDFD) Hyderabad. The CDFD opined that the stomach and intestine were that of Prathyusha while the kidney / liver and blood did not belong to her and it was that of a male individual. CBI investigation was then directed, to check the source of the said blood and kidney/liver. Enquiries were conducted at APFSL and Gandhi Medical College mortuary to ascertain the source of mix-up. However this could not be identified. The viscera of one Devji (male) whose postmortem was conducted just prior to that of Prathyusha was also sent to CDFD to ascertain whether it was biologically related to the viscera of the male identified by CDFD. The report is awaited.

The CDFD further opined that the cotton swabs belonged to Prathyusha but detected a male DNA in it which according to them is that of a sperm cell. It would be pertinent to mention here that five vaginal cotton swabs were received from the mortuary for test by the APFSL. It needs to be emphasised that the APFSL had used all the five swabs for tests and no semen or sperms were detected. It needs to be further emphasised that for microscopic examination the APFSL had extracted the material found in the cotton swabs and it was on this examination that the APFSL had determined it's results. The CDFD did not conduct any microscopic examination to ascertain the presence of sperms. A part of the swabs were sent by CBI to the CFSL. However, the findings of the CFSL corroborates the findings of the APFSL that no semen or sperms were present in the cotton swabs.