AMRITSAR: Rejecting the viscera report of a team of doctors of Government Medical College claiming that Ishmeet Singh had died of drowning, his family has reiterated their demand for a CBI probe. Ishmeet had reportedly drowned in a swimming pool in Maldives on July 29.

His parents Gurpinder Singh and Amritpal Kaur, sister Sameet Kaur, uncle Charankanwal Singh and other members of the family were in Amritsar on Sunday to obeisance at the Golden Temple.

Talking to mediapersons, Charankanwal said Ishmeet was a well-built boy and couldn't get drowned. He apprehended that from the injury marks on his head and blood clots it appeared that he was hit before being allegedly drowned. He said he was hopeful that a CBI inquiry would be conducted to bring out the truth.

Gurpinder said chief minister Parkash Singh Badal had written a letter in this regard to the Prime Minister and ministry of home affairs. He added that the companies with whom Ishmeet had the contract should have made proper safety arrangements for the participants.

The family hailed the state government's decision of setting up a sangeet academy dedicated to him.

The family reiterate charges of foul play

LUDHIANA: The late singer's family has reiterated charges of foul play. Raising the pitch over charges about the possibility of Ishmeet's death being not an accident, the family on Sunday seemed to have become more convinced about the need for an inquiry.

"The question is whether he drowned or was made to drown," said Ishmeet's uncle Charan Kamal Singh, himself a veterinary pathologist, after reports of viscera section came in. According to the mandate of post-mortem, it cannot differentiate whether somebody drowned accidentally or was made to drown, Dr Singh said. To substantiate his charge, Singh referred to the report which said there is a haematoma on temporal region and a linear cut. Haematoma is collection of blood in tissues under the skin or in an internal organ due to injury to the tissue or organ. However, this cannot occur in a pool, he emphasised.

"Medical evidence only establishes what we observed ourselves when his body was brought here," he said claiming that there was a bluish swelling on the temporal region of Ishmeet's body. The haematoma can be due to a hit by a blunt instrument, he explained, iterating that there is a serious chance of his being thrown into the pool after he became unconscious due to the blunt injury. "Had Ishmeet been conscious, he would have come out of the pool. This indicates that he was unconscious when he got drowned," Dr Singh charged.

He made it clear that earlier also they did not say Ishmeet was killed because of the injury, but there were indications that the injury caused him to be unconscious and he was thrown into the pool, which made him drown in the otherwise shallow pool. Taking umbrage to reports that said Ishmeet died "simply due to drowning," he also took exception to the report being made public when it has not reached the family or the investigators yet.

Dr Singh once again brought to fore the family demand for a thorough enquiry into the tragedy. District police chief, SSP, RK Jaiswal, said the report has not reached them yet. "Only after we receive the report, we would be able to say anything," he said.