Vyapam scam: No injuries on TV journalist’s body, says post mortem report

Bhopal, July 7: No internal or external injuries were found on the body of TV journalist Akshay Singh, who suddenly took ill and died last weekend while covering the Vyapam scam of Madhya Pradesh, according to the post-mortem report.

However, doctors who conducted the autopsy on the body at the Dahod General Hospital in Gujarat have "reserved" their opinion on the cause of death.

"There were no internal or external injuries on the body of Akshay as per the post-mortem report received from Dahod where the autopsy was done," Jhabua SP Abid Khan told reporters on Monday.

A senior police official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the 38-year-old scribe had an enlarged heart but refused to elaborate on its reason, saying doctors have "reserved" their opinion on the cause of death and advised to wait for the result of viscera (internal organs) analysis.

"The viscera sample has been preserved by the hospital and process to send it to AIIMS (New Delhi) has been initiated by authorities," Khan said. Police have also registered a case in this regard in Megnnagar Police Station.

A police team has been dispatched to New Delhi for recording statements of those, including the cameraman, who were with Singh when he suddenly passed away.

Singh, working with Delhi-based TV Today Group, suddenly took ill and died last Saturday after having interviewed parents of a girl who had been found dead near railway tracks after her name figured in the Vyapam scam of Madhya Pradesh.

Singh had called on the parents of Namrata Damor, whose body had been found under mysterious circumstances near railway tracks in Ujjain district in January 2012.

A large number of accused and witnesses of the scam- a massive admission and recruitment racket involving several middlemen, medical college owners, bureaucrats and politicians- have died so far under mysterious circumstances.

PTI