Dinesh Schaffter’s body to be exhumed?

The five-member expert committee, comprising of specialist doctors, appointed to prepare a report on the death of businessman, Dinesh Schaffter, yesterday requested in writing to the Colombo Magistrate's Court that the body of deceased Mr. Schaffter needs to be exhumed to find the cause of his death.

In order to determine the cause of death, the body of the deceased should be exhumed and examined, and for that reason, the five-member special medical board requested Colombo Additional Magistrate Mrs. Rajindra Jayasuriya to grant permission for the same.

Accordingly, the court set a date to take up the case to make an order to the Criminal Investigation Department in this regard.

On February 17, Colombo Additional Magistrate Rajindra Jayasuriya issued an order to the Director General of Health to submit a list of specialist doctors to the court to appoint a five-member special medical panel to decide whether the death of Mr. Schaffter was suicide or murder.

Accordingly, the five-member expert committee was appointed by the court on February 27 and headed by Senior Lecturer in the Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo Asela Mendis.

The other members are Prof. D.C.R. Perera, Prof. D.N.P. Fernando, Dr. Sivasubramaniam and Dr. Ruwanpura.(Nimanthi Ranasinghe)