MADURAI: Despite an order passed by the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court on Monday directing the father of R Aakash (26), the Manamadurai youth who died allegedly due to custodial torture on March 8, to receive his son’s body by 5 pm, no one came to claim Aakash’s body, which has been kept in the mortuary of the Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai for the past three months.
Justice L Victoria Gowri had given the ultimatum after a petition filed by Aakash’s father A Rajesh Kannan, was listed today under the caption ‘for being mentioned’.
The petition, which had sought a series of directions including for a CB-CID probe, Rs 50 lakh compensation and preservation of CCTV footage, among others, had been disposed of on June 10 by directing the CB-CID investigation officer to conclude the investigation and file final report as expeditiously as possible.
When the case was again taken up on Monday, the government counsel contended that Aakash’s body was in a very decomposed state and the doctors were unable to enter the mortuary due to risk of contamination. They sought a direction to the police to dispose of the body as per statute.
However, an advocate appearing on behalf of Aakash’s family claimed that he was recently engaged by the family members to represent them in the case and sought further time for them to take a decision on the matter.
Justice Gowri pointed out though the court had extensively heard Kannan’s petition and passed several directions in his favour, and even facilitated the family members to continue their protests peacefully in Manamadurai, they have failed to receive Aakash’s body despite instructions from the court in the past.
Holding that the deceased person should be given due respect, the judge directed Kannan to receive his son’s body by 5 pm on Monday, warning that if the body was not received by then, she might be constrained to direct the police to dispose of the body as per law. The matter was posted on Tuesday.
According to the prosecution, Aakash suffered a fracture in his right leg after jumping from a railway bridge while trying to evade arrest in an assault case on March 5. From there, he was directly taken to the Manamadurai PHC, then the Sivaganga GH and later to the Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai, where he experienced breathing difficulties and died three days later.
However, Aakash’s famiy claimed that he had sustained the injury during police torture. They also staged a five-day road roko, which they dropped after the court’s directions.