The doctor's statement assumes significance given that only on Tuesday CBI had decided to exhume the bodies of the two girls and conduct a fresh autopsy.
The post-mortem of the girls was conducted by a panel of three doctors, including senior surgeon Awadhesh Kumar, physician Rajiv Gupta and Pushpa Lata Pant.
Doctor Pant told reporters, "I had never done a post-mortem before this case as it is done generally by male doctors. On that night, I got a phone call and was included in the panel. That day, I didn't even know that the case had been highlighted in the media."
On being asked whether there was any pressure on her, she said, "It is about compliance of the order. When you get an order you have to comply with it. If it is not done, then explanation can be called. After all, it was night hours."
CBI on Tuesday decided to conduct a fresh autopsy by exhuming the bodies of the girls after it was discovered that established procedures were not followed while conducting the first autopsy.
Highly-placed sources in the agency had revealed that the first post-mortem was conducted at night, which is against the laid down procedures. Post mortem is not conducted after sunset except in exceptional emergency cases.
Doctor Pant welcomed the CBI's decision to conduct a fresh autopsy and clarified that she was included in the earlier panel only by a verbal order.
