CHENNAI: The post-mortem of P Ramkumar (24), who allegedly committed suicide at the Puzhal Central Prison on Sunday (September 18), stands delayed for the second consecutive day on Tuesday as the two judges hearing an appeal from his father Paramasivam, differed with each other on the petitioner’s prayer to include a private doctor of his choice during the autopsy.
The matter has been referred to the Chief Justice S K Kaul in the evening with a request to place the same before a third judge for a majority opinion. While Justice Huluvadi G Ramesh, the senior most judge, opined in favour of the appellant’s plea for the presence of a private doctor, Justice S Vaidyanathan, the second judge on the Bench, held that it should be only a Government doctor.
When the matter was taken up by the Bench around 2.15 pm, the appellant’s counsel R Sankarasubbu insisted that an independent forensic expert of the appellant’s choice should be in the team when the post-mortem examination was conducted.
Opposing the plea, the Additional Advocate-General C Manishankar referred to the decision of the Apex Court in PUCL vs State of Maharashtra (2014) case, wherein the Supreme Court, on the basis of the United Nation’s Code of Conduct for law enforcement officers, had culled out the UN Charter, which had opined that “affording the victim’s family and legal representative the right to request that an independent qualified representative be present during the autopsy of victim’s body”.
Sankarasubbu retorted that as the victim had died while in custody, it was a case of custodial death. To ensure all fairness, transparency and confidentiality, the autopsy should be done in the presence of an independent person of the appellant’s choice.
The State had already nominated three doctors headed by Dr Selvakumar, HoD, KMC. The appellant just wanted the presence of Dr P Sampathkumar, Vice Principal and HoD, Sri Ramachandra Medical College, Porur during the post-mortem. No Government doctor would come forward to be present during the autopsy, as a Government doctor was governed by the service laws of the Government and could not depose against it, Subbu added. When the Bench pointed out that Dr Sampathkumar was a private doctor, Subbu cited three judgments in favour of his claim. Custodial death was worse than honour killing, he added.
Manishankar wanted to know the legal right of the appellant to want the presence of a private doctor of his choice. The government had nominated reputed doctors to conduct the autopsy. If the appellant had any doubts, he could challenge the post-mortem report. Based on mere apprehension, he could not seek a doctor of his choice to be present.
Photos of ‘suicide spot’ leaked
While doubts were being raised on the death of Ramkumar, the suspect in the Swathi murder case, two photos circulated in the social media on Tuesday evening showing a broken switch board in what is believed to be inside Puzhal Central prison. A senior prison official told Express that it was the spot where Ramkumar killed himself by “biting” the live wire he pulled out of the switch board. While doubts were raised about the accessibility of the wires, the photo shows the switch board at a very accessible level