MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Thursday directed the Dean of Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) to expeditiously conduct the postmortem of the body of a man who killed himself at Subramaniapuram police station in Madurai on March 26, and ensure that the report is filed before the court by April 15.
Justice B Pugalendhi gave the direction following a petition filed by N Bhuvaneshwari, wife of the deceased P Narayanan, seeking CBI, CB-CID or SIT probe into her husband's death claiming that he took the extreme step due to harassment by his brother Sivamarkandan, who is also a DMK functionary and the police personnel of the above station in connection with a civil dispute between the siblings.
The case of the petitioner was that, though her husband had suffered grievous injuries due to the physical assault by his brother and his family members on March 10, the Subramaniapuram police had not properly registered a case. The counsel for the petitioner also emphasised the importance of finding out whether there was any grievous injury to the deceased before the occurrence and sought the videographing of the postmortem.
The judge observed that the postmortem plays a crucial role in the investigation by ascertaining the time and the cause of death. Videographing of postmortems ensures that no irregularities are committed during the process and also enables independent review at a later stage, if required, he added, and directed the Dean of GRH to nominate two doctors to conduct the postmortem examination of Narayanan and ensure that the postmortem report is filed before the court at the next hearing on April 15.
"The entire postmortem shall be videographed. The doctors conducting the postmortem have to find out whether there was any missing teeth and any other injuries on the deceased," he added and further directed the police to file a detailed counter.
(Assistance for those having suicidal thoughts is available on the Tamil Nadu health department's helpline 104 and Sneha's suicide prevention helpline 044-24640050)