MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court adjourned a petition filed by a woman alleging delay in providing a postmortem report and video of her husband, a temple priest, who allegedly died due to custodial torture by Chinthamani police in Madurai.
Justice P Murugan adjourned the plea after noting that the petitioner’s family failed to receive the deceased Paramasivan’s body. The body was subsequently received by the family on Thursday.
The petitioner Ayyammal’s counsel contended that the authorities handed over the postmortem report and video only after the petitioner filed the above petition on Tuesday evening. Citing that the postmortem was performed as early as on August 18, he raised doubts over the delay in providing the report. However, the judge questioned why the petitioner had not received the body even after the court addressed her grievances. Since the counsel assured to receive the body, the judge granted time and adjourned the case to Friday.
According to Ayyammal, her husband suffered a head injury on July 19, while being assaulted by the police during an inquiry into a neighbourhood quarrel over car parking. He had experienced severe headache and vomiting due to bleeding in his brain nerves and died during treatment in a private hospital on August 16, she added.
In her previous petition, the court had directed the Judicial Magistrate IV of Madurai to conduct an inquiry into his death. It had also issued directions for a proper postmortem and appointed an advocate commissioner to check if the station did not have CCTV cameras.