The medical board, which performed a second autopsy on Maldivian medical student and model Raudha Athif yesterday, did not give any opinion on the cause of her death, reasoning that they found the body partially decomposed.
"We could not come up with any opinion immediately as her neck decomposed fast due to its dissection during the first autopsy," said the medical board's chief, Amirul Hossain Chowdhury, coming out of a Rajshahi Medical College morgue after a three-hour autopsy.
A ligature mark was partially visible on the neck while the carotid artery and hyoid bone were intact and soft tissue was decomposed, said Amirul, an associate professor of forensic medicine at the M Monsur Ali Medical College in Sirajganj.
Asked whether these findings indicated a suicide, he said, “We will take time to give our opinion."
About her father's allegation of strangulation marks on her neck, Amirul said they hardly had any opportunity to give an opinion on those marks 27 days past the death.
The medical board handed over a copy of a preliminary report to Asmaul Hoque, an inspector of Criminal Investigation Department who is investigating the murder case filed by her father.
They mentioned their detailed findings in the report, but did not give their opinion as they were waiting for some chemical reports, said Amirul.
The board collected samples of available soft tissue, bones, hair, nails and viscera for the chief chemical expert's opinion on whether there was any poisoning.
They conducted an x-ray and did not find anything abnormal in the body, Amirul added.
The remaining two members of the medical board are associate professors Syed Mahbub Hafiz of North Bengal Medical College in Sirajganj and Hafizur Rahman of Rajshahi Medical College.
The body of Raudha, a second-year MBBS student of Islami Bank Medical College and a model who featured on Vogue India's cover, was reburied in the same grave.
She was found dead on March 29 in her dormitory room in Rajshahi and buried on April 1.
The second autopsy was done after CID, assisted by the morgue staff, exhumed the body from Hetomkhan Graveyard in the city around 11:00am in presence of Executive Magistrate Raktim Chowdhury, who prepared her body's inquest report.
After exhuming the body, Raudha's father Mohamed Athif and hostel Superintendent Mahmuda Begum confirmed it to be Raudha's, said CID Inspector Asmaul.
The first autopsy on March 31 took only half-an-hour to complete and reported it to be a suicide. Raudha's father rejected the report and filed a murder case on April 10, accusing a classmate of killing his daughter.
It was decided to disinter the body as the CID was unable to find any "strong" evidence to support the claim of murder. On April 18, a Rajshahi court granted CID's petition for the exhumation.