Magistrate orders 5-member panel of doctors for fresh autopsy on Dinesh Schaffter

By T. Farook Thajudeen

The Colombo Magistrate yesterday ordered the Police to provide the court a list of doctors to select from them a five-member panel to conduct the post-mortem inquiry on the death of young investor and entrepreneur Dinesh Schaffter.

Colombo Additional Magistrate Rajndra Jayasuriya made this direction to the CID during the magisterial inquiry into the suspicious death of Schaffter in mid-December apparently attacked and abandoned at Kanatte, Colombo under mysterious circumstances.

Schaffter was found seriously injured and tied to his car seat, on the premises of Kanatte was rushed to the hospital, where he succumbed to injuries.

Last week the Schaffter family notified the Court that they had found various anomalies and contradictions in the post-mortem report done by the Colombo Judicial Medical Officer.

President’s Counsel Anuja Premaratne appearing for the aggrieved party told the Court the initial post-mortem report had suggested that death was due to strangulation but the final post-mortem report submitted to the court has concluded that Schaffter’s death was due to cyanide poisoning, contradictory to the initial report.

Considering the facts presented, Colombo Additional Magistrate Jayasuriya announced that the verdict of the inquest into the death of businessman Dinesh Schaffter would be delivered on 8 March.