The Madras High Court held a special sitting on Saturday to hear an urgent case and ordered conduct of a post-mortem on the body of a person, who had died allegedly due to police torture, by a team of doctors to be nominated by the deans of the government hospitals in Madurai, Tiruchi and Thanjavur.
Justice G. Chandrasekharan, however, refused to include a private doctor, to be named by the family members of the deceased, in the team. He agreed with Government Advocate (criminal side) S. Santhosh that the presence of a private doctor would lead to unnecessary interference in the procedure.
After hearing the case at his residence at the request of advocates K. Balu and M.R. Elavarasan, the judge also ordered that the entire post-mortem procedure must be recorded on video and that a non-doctor, representing the victim’s family, could be present during the medical procedure.
Making it clear that the autopsy must be completed by 12 noon on Sunday, the judge said, the family members must receive the body thereafter and perform the final rites without precipitating the issue any further. The post-mortem report should be submitted to the jurisdictional magistrate in a sealed cover.
So far as the plea for transferring the investigation into the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was concerned, the judge said, that issue would be taken up for consideration at a regular court hearing next week. The special hearing on Saturday was confined to the conduct of the post-mortem.
R. Karthikeyan of Kasankottai post in Udayarpalayam Taluk of Ariyalur district had approached the High Court accusing the police officials from the Vikkiramangalam police station of having barged into his paternal uncle Sembulingam’s house on November 25 and assaulting him brutally as part of their inquiry in a criminal case.
The petitioner claimed that after undergoing treatment at a hospital, his uncle had succumbed to the injuries on December 8. He said the local police might not investigate the matter fairly, and therefore, insisted on a CBI probe besides ensuring a presence of a doctor of his family’s choice during the post-mortem.
