Panaji, Nov 18 (IANS) A relative of Russian teenager Elena Sukhonova, whose badly mangled remains were found along a railway track in May this year, has alleged that her body has decomposed beyond recognition in the mortuary.
Advocate Vikram Varma, speaking on behalf of Dmitiry Voronov — Elena’s brother-in-law — has said that the malfunctioning mortuary at the Goa Medical college where the body was stored had resulted in the extreme state of decomposition.

“The entire face is decomposed with fungus all over the body. This seems to be the fall-out of inadequate facilities with the morgue,” Varma said Wednesday.

Voronov is in Goa to complete the formality of identification of the dead teenager and to lay the remains to rest, Varma said. The advocate said that Elena’s features were beyond recognition due to high decomposition and that the only way to identify the body now was through a DNA test.

When contacted, E.J. Rodrigues, a forensic specialist at the Goa Medical College, refuted the charges levelled by Varma.

“There cannot be a morgue failure. The body was in bad shape when it was brought to the morgue,” Rodrigues said.

The mysterious death of the Russian teenager in May this year and the subsequent reports of a police cover up in the local media had brought back memories of the Scarlett Keeling murder and the suspect police investigations in the preceding year.

On May 8, Sukhonova’s mutilated body was found on the rail tracks some kilometres from the Thivim railway station in North Goa.

While police claimed that Elena, who was holidaying in Goa, had fallen off a Mumbai-bound train, railway officials claimed that she could not have landed under the wheels of the train she was travelling in.

Voronov, while speaking to a section of the media Tuesday, said he suspected that Elena was murdered.