KOTA KINABALU - A medical officer told the Coroner’s Court here today that the investigating officer in Zara Qairina Mahathir’s case did not issue the POL 61 form, which is the post-mortem order to determine the cause of death of the 13-year-old girl.
Dr Logaraj Ratha, who has been undergoing off-campus training at the Forensic Medicine Department of Queen Elizabeth Hospital since June last year, revealed this when reading his witness statement before Coroner Amir Shah Amir Hassan on the eighth day of the inquest into the teenager’s death.
"I received a release form from Inspector Wong Yew Zhung, authorising the body of the deceased to be handed over to her mother, Noraidah Lamat, without a medico-legal post mortem,” said Dr Logaraj, the inquest’s seventh witness.
Recounting the events of July 17, which was the day Zara Qairina was pronounced dead, Dr Logaraj said he was informed of a death in the hospital’s Neurosurgery Ward involving an active police investigation, and that the body was to be transferred to the mortuary.
Given the police involvement, he reported the case to the on-duty forensic pathologist, Dr Ding Chee Swan.
"I contacted Inspector Wong, and he told me he had been informed that Zara Qairina’s cause of death was Severe Traumatic Brain Injury with Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy.
"Inspector Wong added that he would consult his superiors before giving further information.
"Later, he informed me that the police would not be issuing the POL 61 form and that the hospital could release the body to the family without conducting a medico-legal post-mortem,” he said, adding that the body was eventually handed over to Zara’s mother.
Zara Qairina died on July 17 at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where she had been admitted a day earlier after being found unconscious near a drain at her school hostel in Papar at 4am. - BERNAMA