In a new twist to the Wasim Thajudeen murder case, South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM) Chairman Dr. Neville Fernando has said that his institute does not possess any skeletal remains of the late ruggerite, who was murdered.

Dr. Neville Fernando

In a statement issued, Fernando said, “SAITM records do not reveal that any specimen of the late Mr. Wasim Thajudeen was sent to the institution. SAITM states no authority has visited the institution or inspected any specimens that are in its custody, to date.”

Fernando however assured that he and his institute were willing to co-operate in any investigation and give access to its available specimens which according to Fernando are taken over following due and established process and are documented, supervised and certified by the relevant authorities.

“Such specimens at SAITM are securely kept in its museum and are used for teaching purposes only,” the statement said.

Fernando’s statement comes just days after the CID informed the Court that Thajudeen’s missing skeletal remains were at SAITM. According to the CID, ex-JMO Ananda Samarasekera had sent some of the Thajudeen skeletal remains to SAITM in Malabe.

In August, Health Ministry Secretary Anura Jayawickrema in a report submitted to the Colombo Additional Magistrate said that ex-JMO was responsible for the missing body parts of Thajudeen’s body. Jayawickrema said that Samarasekera had acted in an irresponsible manner when conducting the first postmortem, in which Samarasekera ruled Thajudeen’s death was due to an accident. The ex-JMO had later claimed that he had handed over the body parts to two minor staff to store in a freezer but both staff members had denied this.

Samarasekera currently serves as the Professor and Head of Department of Forensic Medicine at SAITM.