The magisterial enquiry into the death of a teenaged boy from Bihar, who was allegedly beaten up by villagers when he tried to cheat a woman of her gold chain on the pretext of polishing, began on Monday with Judicial Magistrate T. Palaniammal questioning the relatives of the deceased.
A day after Chief Judicial Magistrate T Jayaraajan ordered an enquiry after police referred the case under Section 176 Cr Pc, the Magistrate visited the Government Headquarters Hospital here where the body of the boy, Dilkush Kumar, is kept and conducted the inquest for post mortem.
The boy, hailing from Supaul district in Bihar, visited Mudhunal village near here on Saturday, offering to polish gold and silver ornaments and allegedly tried to cheat R. Vimala (23), a homemaker, of her gold chain when villagers caught hold of him and allegedly gave a thrashing.
The Magistrate questioned some of the relatives of the deceased and chided Vimala for allowing the boy to polish her chain, that too when she was alone at home. Men and women from Mudhunal turned up in large numbers to depose before the Magistrate, but Ms. Palaniammal said she would question them on Tuesday, if necessary, after visiting the village.
The village heads, who were present in the hospital at the time of inquest, denied having beaten up the boy. After finding loss of weight in her chain, Vimala took hold of him and raised an alarm, following which other women gathered and tied up the boy, they said. Later the villagers called the “hello police” and handed him over, they said.
After a brief interrogation at the Bazaar police station, the police took the boy to the Government Hospital where he was treated as an out-patient. He was brought back to the station for further interrogation, when he developed seizures. He was rushed to the hospital again, but died after failing to respond to treatment, police said.
As the death took place after he was in police custody, Sivaganga Superintendent of Police M. Durai, who is in charge of Ramanathapuram district, ordered the magisterial enquiry to find out the cause of death.
