The Madras High Court Bench here on Thursday reserved its judgement on a petition filed by an engineer, who also claimed to be a social activist, to unravel mystery behind the death of a woman inmate of a home run by Akshaya Trust at Pulluthu near here.
Justice N. Kirubakaran deferred his verdict after hearing arguments advanced on behalf of the petitioner, a government doctor who alleged irregularities in the first post-mortem conducted on the body and Madurai district secretary of All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA). Acting on interim orders passed by the judge last month, the police had exhumed the body and conducted a second post mortem through doctors at the Government Rajaji Hospital here. The report was filed in the court.
Subsequently, T. Selvaraj, Associate Professor of Department of Forensic Medicine at the GRH, filed an intervening application through his counsel W. Peter Ramesh Kumar and claimed that he did not conduct the first post mortem at all as it was projected before the court.
He also accused another government doctor of trying to frame him in the issue and submitted the audio recording of a telephonic conversation between him and some hospital staff to prove that he did not conduct the first post mortem but for signing at one place in the autopsy report.
On the other hand, U. Nirmala Rani, counsel for AIDWA, said it was very unfortunate that doctors of a government hospital, which has to serve as a medical asylum for the poor and the needy, could be so unprofessional even in conducting post mortem of bodies. The petitioner’s counsel, R. Alagumani, said a thorough enquiry should be ordered into the activities of Akshaya Trust which, he claimed, was in the habit of forcibly taking away the destitute to the home without taking any steps to trace the relatives.