The Madras High Court on Friday refused to pass orders for exhuming the body of history sheeter S. Shankar, who was shot dead by the Ayanavaram police at New Avadi Road here on August 21 in a reported encounter, and subject it to re-postmortem since his mother S. Govindammal, who was the petitioner, suspected foul play.
Justice G.K. Ilanthiraiyan agreed with the contention of State Public Prosecutor A. Natarajan that there was no need for conducting a re-postmortem because the body was handed over to the family only after video recording the autopsy as per procedure followed in cases of encounter deaths.
The judge pointed out that the other relief of a Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) probe sought for by the petitioner S. Govindammal had become infructuous since the government, on its own, had already transferred the investigation into the death from the local police to the CB-CID.
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The court, however, directed the CB-CID to complete the investigation within 12 weeks and file a final report before the jurisdictional magistrate.