Investigators probing the death of the Dalit youth E. Ilavarasan have more evidence to suspect that it was a case of suicide, though his family is alleging that it could be a murder. This time, it is the watch of the victim recovered from the scene where his body was found along the railway track on July 4 in Dharmapuri.
The watch stopped functioning at 1.20 p.m. On suspicion that the watch came apart when Ilavarasan was hit by the speeding train, police sought to know the exact time when the Coimbatore-Mumbai Kurla Expressed crossed the location.
Train time
Railway authorities gave them the time chart of Kurla Express on July 4, 2013. “The train crossed the scene where Ilavarasan’s body was found at exactly 1.20 p.m…it matches with the time on the watch that probably stopped functioning in the impact. The recovery of the watch from the scene was brought on record by the investigation officer under the provisions of Cr.PC,” a police official told The Hindu on Monday.
While Ilavarasan’s friends Manoj Kumar of Chennai and Karthik of Chithoor have already deposed before a Judicial Magistrate in Harur stating that he had called them and conveyed his suicidal tendencies, his wife Divya gave a statement to the police confirming that the handwriting on the suicide note was that of her husband.
Audio conversation
She had also confirmed the genuineness of the audio conversation in which Ilavarasan tells her that he would commit suicide.
