The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday ordered a re-postmortem to be conducted on the body of the Tenkasi farmer who had allegedly died in the custody of Forest Department personnel. The earlier postmortem was not proper as it was conducted at night.
The court was hearing a petition filed by Palammal, who alleged that her husband Anaikarai Muthu died due to torture meted out by the Forest Department personnel. It was said that he was picked up for inquiry on the charge of tapping electricity illegally. Since the earlier postmortem was conducted at night she had sought a re-postmortem to be conducted as per norms.
Justice R. Pongiappan observed that the Madras High Court had held that if night postmortems were held, there may be a chance for miscarriage of justice and it would lead to confusion over cause of death. The Tamil Nadu Medical Code ( Volume 1) had stated that completing post mortem in night hours was not advisable.
“The post mortem has to be done in the presence of sunlight because colour of injury under tubelight, CFL, LED’s and other artificial illumination appears to be purple rather than red and as per forensic science, there is no mention of purple injury and wound. However, in some emergencies and special conditions/ occasions such as terrorism or urgent events like disasters, forensic doctors probably perform post mortem during night and evening,” the judge said.
The court refused to accept the State’s argument that the post mortem was conducted at night to avoid law and order problem. The State had argued that the family members had resorted to a sit in agitation. The court observed that nowadays gathering of public after such occurrences was a normal one.
The judge directed a team of experts from Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi government medical college hospitals to conduct the post mortem between sunrise and sunset and the same should be videographed. He directed the petitioner to accept the body as her grievance was redressed.
