DEATH BY STRANGULATION

I had a tremendous response for my article " Death by air injection" published in the March,1995 issue of Crime & Detective. Many readers have complained that their clippings, stories and ideas which they have sent to me with great hope have not found their way in my subsequent pieces. I would request all such readers to be patient with me. I am receiving such a heavy mail, that it is not possible for me to include all the letters. Nevertheless I shall try to include as many letters as possible. Needless to say, more useful contributions find their place earlier.

One of the best responses that I got for my above named article was from Dr. Ritu Gupta from Nizamuddin, New Delhi. She has sent me a photocopy of page 153 from a book called "Murder What Dunit?" The book is written by JHH Gaute & Robin Odell. It describes a remarkable case in which a doctor killed his patient by air injection. It was a mercy killing. In December 1949, one Dr. Hermann Sander attended one of the patients, Mrs. Abbie Borroto, who was dying of cancer in a New Hampshire hospital. In the presence of a nurse he took a hypodermic syringe and injected 40 cc of air into a vein in the woman's arm. A death certificate was made out giving cancer of large intestine as the cause of death, and the body was duly buried. Some days after the funeral Dr. Sander completed the dead woman's medical record by making a detailed entry of her final treatment, including the injection of air. This virtual confession to mercy killing was spotted by a hospital records clerk who reported it. In due course the newspapers learned of the story, and a great controversy blew up, with the doctor being applauded for an act of mercy killing. Dr. Sander, having refused to reconsider the statement made on his patient's record, was brought to trial in what became known world-wide as `The Mercy Killing Trial'. Thankfully enough, the doctor was found not guilty.

A remarkable story indeed on death by air injection. I had thought that killings by air injections could be done only by criminals with criminal intentions. But here is a remarkable case in which a doctor having an exalted place in society killed his patient with air injection. It was done with good intention however. The doctor couldn't see the pain of the patient. He could neither cure her disease, nor lessen her pain. So he deemed it fit to end her life. However whether he did it right or not remains a controversial topic. Readers may send their views on this. Thank you Ritu, for sending us such a nice story related to death by air injection. Readers may keep sending similar stories, newsclippings or other material of interest to me for inclusion in our forthcoming issues.

This time I am going to tell you about a very interesting case which I solved in November 1993. On 16th November, 1993, I was called by the police to a house in Vasant Vihar, where they had found the dead body of an 18 year old girl Rajni. Rajni was a student of B.Com. in Delhi University. Her parents were simple middle class people. She had a younger brother, a 15 year old boy called Raju. Rajni was in love with a boy Pramod, who was her colleague in the college. Everybody knew about their love-affair. Her parents were however very much against this love-affair, and had advised their daughter to terminate this affair but she would not listen. Pramod came from a good family, but his company was not good. There were rumors in the campus, that they even had sexual relations. However Rajni had confided everything to Sarita, her best friend. During the police investigations later on, Sarita told the police that Rajni had no sexual relations with Pramod. However only a few days back Rajni had told her that lately Pramod was insisting to start sexual relations with her, but as she was against such things before marriage, she had refuted his advances. Anyway she had not lost her love for Pramod. It was just that she did not want to have sexual relations with him before marriage.

On 15th November, 1993 Rajni came home from college at the usual time of 5 pm. She had her evening cup of tea, and then went to meet her friends. She came back again at about 8 pm, had her dinner and went to her room. At about 10 pm, her father heard some voices from her room. Out of curiosity he went to her room, and knocked at the door. Rajni opened the door after an inordinate delay. Her father however saw someone run away from the window. He immediately rushed to the window and saw a shadow rapidly moving away from the house. Her father became very furious with Rajni and asked who had come to meet her. She wouldn't say anything, but his father knew it was Pramod. He woke up his wife and told everything to her. Rajni's mother became very furious and slapped Rajni twice. She also shouted at Rajni and said that she was ruining the name of the family. This drama went up to 11.30 pm after which Rajni's parents left the room.

When in the morning, her parents saw the room still closed at 8 am, they became very worried and knocked at the door. When they couldn't get an answer, they called their neighbors. Someone broke open the door. To everyone's horror, Rajni was found dead in her bed with a scarf tied around her neck. Her skirt was folded up showing her thighs and even her undergarments. Her face was congested. The bedclothing had been thrown back in a manner consistent with getting out of bed. There were no signs of any struggle. However I could notice a flower pot which had tipped down. Rajni was dressed in a nightgown. Some bleeding had occurred from her nose which made a stain on the bedding. The tongue was protruded.

From the circumstances, it appeared that someone had strangulated her. Rajni's parents immediately accused Pramod. Her father told the police that he had indeed visited his daughter the previous night, and had entered their house through the drainage pipe. He said that when he caught him in some dastardly act, he ran away from the house. His contention was that Pramod came again after sometime, and killed her. Sarita's statement that lately Pramod was demanding sexual intercourse from her, seemed to corroborate the story that Pramod had indeed killed her. It was quite possible that Pramod came back again after some time, demanded sexual intercourse from Rajni, and when she wouldn't relent, he strangulated her out of frustration. When Pramod was contacted and told that Rajni had died, he seemed perturbed. However he could not give satisfactory answer as to where he was on the night of 15 Nov. Police swung in action and arrested Pramod even as he kept insisting about his innocence.

It was at this stage that Rajni's dead body was brought to me for post-mortem. Here I would like to say a few facts about strangulation before we go on further. Strangulation is a kind of death in which the neck is compressed by a ligature. By and large strangulation points to homicide. Although one can commit suicide by strangulating himself, such cases are not very common. I generally take a case of strangulation to be homicidal in nature, unless proved otherwise.

Many types of ligature have been used for strangulation. Cases of strangulation with such weird materials as electrical cables are not unknown (reproduce fig. 143 on page 402 here). Strangulation is of several different types. The cases in which some kind of ligature (such as a necktie, scarf, dhoti, or even an electrical cable as just mentioned) is used, go by the name ligature strangulation. However the neck could be constricted by other means too. For instance, one could simply use hands to constrict the neck of his victim. These cases go by the name throttling or manual strangulation ( From Latin manus, hand ). Manual strangulation can leave tell-tale fingernail marks and scratches (from nails of the assailant) on the neck (reproduce fig. 147 on page 411 here). There might be signs of struggle too, such as bruising of the face (reproduce fig. 139 on page 397 here). The face is generally congested (engorged with blood), but it might be pale (reproduce fig. 141 on page 398 here). Strangulation can also be effected by compressing the victim's neck against the assailant's forearm. This form is known as mugging. When a victim is attacked from the back without warning, and strangled by grasping his throat or throwing a ligature over the neck and tightening it quickly, it is known as garrotting. It can overpower and kill even a healthy robust male without any struggle. Loss of consciousness is so rapid that the assailant is able single-handed, to tie the ligature with one or more turns. Garrotting, as a mode of execution, is practiced in Spain and Turkey. In Spain, the prisoner is seated with his back to a post, to which he is firmly secured. A metal collar is then applied to the neck and tightened. The apparatus may include a spike which is forced into the nape of the neck during the execution. The bowstring is used in Turkey.

In our country, especially in the Northern regions, a very weird form of strangulation is used. This is known as Bansdola ( doing away with a bamboo). In this form of strangulation, the neck is compressed between two sticks or hard objects, usually bamboos, one being placed across the throat in front and another behind. These are strongly fastened at one end and a rope is passed at the other to bring the two bamboos together. The unfortunate victim is thus strangled to death. Sometimes, the throat is pressed by means of a bamboo or lathi placed across the front of the neck, the murderer standing with a foot on each end of the bamboo or lathi, thus squeezing the victim.

There is another method of strangulation known as the palmar strangulation (reproduce fig 137 on page 393 here). In this method, both palms are so pressed over the nose and mouth that the victim can not breathe.

In cases of strangulation, abrasions and bruises round about the ligature mark are quite common. These injuries are produced by the assailant's nails, and even by the victim's own nails during the struggle to pry the ligature away from his neck. Many times, the pattern of the ligature material is reflected very faithfully on the neck. The weave of a rope for instance can come very accurately on the neck and many times a victim can be apprehended from that. In the adjoining figures (reproduce figures 133 and 134 on page 391 here), the weave of the ligature material gave away the criminal. The criminal strangulated a young boy with a plastic twine, with a characteristic weave. This weave was faithfully reproduced on the neck of the victim. When the accused was finally apprehended, a plastic twine was recovered from his which had exactly the same weave as was found on the neck of the boy. This helped to nab the criminal very easily.

Differentiating suicidal from homicidal strangulation however can be a very tough affair. In the given case, I found at my wit's end to decide whether I was dealing with a case of suicide or homicide. The pattern certainly seemed similar to homicide. It was quite possible that Pramod came back later in the night to press his demand for sexual intercourse, and when Rajni resisted he strangulated her with her own scarf. It was quite possible for him to do that. Police investigations revealed that lately he was moving in bad company. Rajni's upturned skirt showing her underclothings pointed to the fact that Pramod might indeed have tried to molest her.

However the two things that caught my attention were relatively undisturbed state of the room and the position of the knot in front of the neck. If the death was as result of homicide, there should have been a struggle between the two. Rajni might have shouted, but nobody heard her cries in the night. Furthermore one would expect the furniture and other things in the room to be in a violently disturbed state. But everything seemed to be in order, save for a flower pot which might have tipped because of the carelessness of Rajni.

In suicidal cases, mostly the knot is in the front. Further the scarf was applied with five turns, and there was a final tying of the free ends with a half-knot. This is the hallmark of self-strangulation. A killer generally makes only one turn around the knot, and more often than not he would merely tighten the ligature without actually tying it. A person committing suicide by strangulation would have to tie the knots. If he merely tightened the noose, he could not strangulate himself. The reason is not hard to find. First of all he would tighten the noose with his muscular effort. Before dying he would fall unconscious. The moment he would fall unconscious, his muscles would relax. He would not be able to keep the ligature tight. The ligature would loosen up and he will start breathing again. Thus if a person wants to commit suicide by strangulation, he would have to tie a knot, so that the grip is not loosened.

Another interesting point was the presence of scarf round the neck of Rajni. If Pramod had killed Rajni by strangulation, why hadn't he taken away the ligature material (the scarf) with him? It is very natural for a killer to take away the ligature material from the scene of crime. No criminal wants to leave behind any incriminating piece of evidence.

All these pieces of evidence led me to conclude that Rajni had actually committed suicide by strangulating herself. She had been severely scolded by both her parents the previous night. She was in a state of great turmoil otherwise too. Her love-affair was not seen in the proper light by her parents and this had disturbed her a lot. All this caused her to take that drastic step on that night.

The police had faith in my findings and released Pramod. A few months later, Rajni's father confided in me that he had indeed found a suicide note in Rajni's drawer, in which she had stated that she was taking her life because her parents refused to acknowledge her love-affair. He had destroyed that suicide note because he wanted Pramod to go behind bars. In his opinion, Pramod was morally and ethically responsible for his daughter's death. This confession confirmed my conclusions in that case. I was very satisfied on that day, that forensic science could help save the life of an innocent young man.