MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday directed the Director General of Police (DGP) to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the death of a pregnant woman under suspicious circumstances in Sivaganga on June 17. It also ordered the Director of Medical Education (DME) to constitute a neutral multidisciplinary medical board to conduct a re-postmortem on the woman’s body within 48 hours.
Justice L Victoria Gowri passed the order on a petition by S Fathima Beevi, mother of the deceased Afrin, alleging that her daughter was a victim of dowry harassment. In her petition, Beevi stated that on January 25, 2026, she married Afrin to Mohammed Ashraf, son of former chairman of Thiruppathur town panchayat, by giving 19.5 sovereign gold jewellery and other household articles. However, after marriage, her daughter said that her husband and in-laws demanded more dowry and tortured her both physically and mentally, the petition said.
On June 17, Beevi’s son-in-law called her saying that Afrin locked herself inside a room. However, when she rushed there 20 minutes later, he opened the room from outside and Afrin, who was four months pregnant, was found dead, allegedly by suicide.
Noticing external injuries on her body, Beevi suspected foul play and lodged a police complaint. However, citing that her daughter’s in-laws wielded considerable influence, she sought a series of directions, including preservation of CCTV footage relating to the postmortem, re-examination of postmortem records and an SIT probe.
Justice Gowri observed that in cases of unnatural and suspicious death, the body becomes the first and, at times, the most truthful witness, narrating what living witnesses are unable, unwilling or afraid to disclose.