MADURAI: The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court on Monday directed Judicial Magistrate IV of Madurai to conduct an inquiry into the death of a 52-year-old man, after his wife moved a petition alleging that he died due to a head injury sustained during police torture at Chinthamani police station last month.
Disposing of the petition filed by Paramasivan’s wife Ayyammal, Justice P Murugan further directed the Deans of the Government Medical Colleges in Madurai, Theni, and Sivaganga to nominate a senior doctor each to conduct postmortem examination on Paramasivan’s body and the same should be videographed in the presence of a scientific officer. He also said that the postmortem should be conducted as soon as possible and the postmortem report along with the video should be submitted before the magistrate in a sealed cover.
Since the petitioner’s counsel raised doubts over the additional advocate general’s claim that the police station was established only in December last year and is yet to be installed with CCTV cameras, the judge appointed advocate Ayiram K Selvakumar as advocate commissioner to verify if the station had CCTV cameras at the time of the incident.
The magistrate was instructed to commence the inquiry on Tuesday. Ayyammal alleged in her petition that she sustained injuries during a physical altercation between them and their neighbour over parking of vehicle on July 16.
Her husband lodged a police complaint in this regard, but the police officials threatened them to withdraw the complaint and forcibly took her husband to the police station for inquiry on July 19, where they assaulted him on the head, causing him to vomit and faint on the spot, Ayyammal claimed.
He was taken to a nearby hospital by the police and sent back home with a warning not to reveal the incident to anyone. Since her husband continued to experience severe pain and vomiting, they tried to avail of treatment again at Government Rajaji Hospital on August 5 where they found that he suffered from bleeding in the brain nerves, but the police forced them to get discharged six days later, she added.
Later, her husband was admitted to a private hospital, where he died on August 16, she said. She sought directions for a proper postmortem by a three-member team of doctors from different districts and also for preservation of CCTV footage recorded in the station from July 18 to 20. Earlier, the additional advocate general denied the allegations of custodial torture and said already Melur revenue divisional officer is conducting an inquiry in connection with the incident.