SC asks AIIMS to verify Soni Sori's torture claim

To be rendered all medical support

PTI | May 2, 2012



Amid allegations that foreign bodies were thrust into her private parts, the supreme court on Wednesday directed AIIMS to medically examine alleged Naxal sympathiser Soni Sori to treat her and ascertain the charges.

A bench of justices Altamas Kabir and J Chelameswar asked the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) director to render her all medical assistance and submit a report to it before July 10.

A suspected Maoist conduit, Sori has been accused by the police of receiving "protection money" from the Essar group.

She was arrested on October 4 in South Delhi by a Chhattisgarh police team and was taken to Dantewada for interrogation.

Essar has denied giving funds to Maoists.

The apex court asked the AIIMS director to constitute a special medical board comprising the head of the department of gynaecology, an endocrinologist and a cardiac specialist, to look into the allegations and provide her adequate treatment.

The bench passed the order after senior counsel Colin Gonsalves cited the latest report submitted by an advocate Sudha Bharadwaj, who has stated that Sori was suffering from multiple health complications, both in her private parts and general health conditions on account of the foreign particles thrust into her by the Chhattisgarh police.

In October 2011, a special medical team from a Kolkata hospital had submitted a report to the apex court that it has recovered a certain foreign particle from her body, but could not identify the reasons as to how it got embedded in her private part.

Counsel Atul Jha appearing for the Chhattisgarh government submitted that the entire allegation was being orchestrated by certain vested interests to malign the state police.

He submitted that Sori was produced before a judicial magistrate at least on a dozen of occasions, but she did never make even a whisper about the alleged torture.

Jha said the statement recorded by lady advocate Sudha Bharadwaj was unreliable and aimed at discrediting the state government.

The apex court, however, was not convinced by the argument and proceeded to pass the order for a fresh appraisal of Sori's medical condition by the AIIMS board.

Earlier on October 20 last year, the apex court had observed that injuries suffered by tribal teacher and suspected Maoist activist Soni Sori do not prima facie seem to be as simple as it was made out and had directed the Chhattisgarh government to get her independent medical test done in Kolkata.

The bench was hearing a petition filed by Sori that she was tortured in police custody after her arrest from Delhi.

Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for Sori, had said she was falsely implicated in a number of cases linking her to Maoist activities.

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