Doctors did not conduct post-mortem examination of P. Ramkumar on Monday as they were waiting for the arrival of his relatives from his native village of Meenakshipuram in Tirunelveli district. Ramkumar, the lone suspect in the murder of techie S. Swathi, reportedly committed suicide at the Puzhal prison on Sunday.
Superintendent of the Government Royapettah Hospital N. Nazeer Ahmed said the post-mortem would take place on Tuesday. “We are waiting for his relatives to arrive. Everything was ready, but they did not turn up,” he said.
Hospital dean Narayana Babu said they had received a copy of the court order to go ahead. “The lawyers have said they would like the relatives to be present while the post-mortem is being done but they did not come today, so it will take place tomorrow,” he said.
Since post-mortems are not conducted after sunset, doctors had to reschedule it for Tuesday.
A four-member team, consisting of R. Selvakumar, professor of forensic medicine at Government Kilpauk Hospital; Manikanda Raja, assistant professor of the same hospital; K.V. Vinod Kumar, assistant professor at the Government Royapettah Hospital; and S. Balasubramanian, professor at the Government Stanley Hospital, has been formed to conduct the post-mortem, a senior hospital official said.
Earlier on Monday, the High Court refused to interfere in the conduct of the autopsy.
However, it nominated one more doctor to the three-member team already constituted by the government.
Turning down the request of R. Paramasivan – Ramkumar’s father – to nominate a doctor of his choice to be present during the post-mortem examination, Justice T.S. Sivagnanam said there was no material to show that the team of doctors constituted by the government would be biased.
