Indrani’s Illness Not Due to Drug Overdose: Forensic Report

The report was in direct contrast to the conclusion drawn by JJ Hospital.

Shortly after former INX Media founder Indrani Mukerjea was discharged from J J Hospital on Wednesday, 11 April, where she had been admitted on Monday, reports from the Kalina forensic science laboratory (FSL) ruled out drug overdose as the cause for her illness.

Mukerjea is an accused in the murder of her daughter Sheena Bora.

As reported by The Indian Express, FSL had submitted its report to the Prisons Department on Wednesday, which was in direct contrast to the conclusion drawn by JJ Hospital, which had said that she had “overdosed” on an antidepressant.

CNN-News18 reported that ruling out drug overdose, the FSL had said that Mukerjea’s ill health could be due to some "other medical ailment".

This is the second time that the FSL had drawn up a conclusion which was diametrically opposite to the one offered by the hospital Mukerjea was admitted in.

In 2015, the FSL and Hinduja Hospital had put forth different medical conclusions on Mukerjea’s health. However, at the time, the Prison’s Department had gone with FSL.

This time however, the Maharashtra Prisons told the newspaper that it would rely on the discharge report submitted by JJ Hospital, in terms of what caused Mukerjea’s illness. This would form the basis of its enquiry, it said.

Even though the Kalina FSL has ruled out drug overdose as the reason behind Indrani’s illness, we will wait for J J Hospital’s discharge report, which will form the basis of our enquiry.

An unnamed official to The Indian Express

While the police are waiting for Mukerjea’s health to improve, so she can give her own statement, the statements of 18 jail staff, including four escorts from the Local Arms Division that had been assigned to escort her to the Central Bureau of Investigation court on Friday, were recorded.

The report further mentions that in the meanwhile, Mukerjea was evaluated twice on Tuesday and once on Wednesday morning, before she was officially discharged from the hospital.

She also underwent three psychiatric counseling sessions, while being admitted in the hospital. According to the reports centred around all of these sessions, her medical parameters seemed to be completely normal.

(With inputs from The Indian Express)