MADURAI: In the case of the death of a youth due to alleged custodial torture, the State President of Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front T Chellakannu said the postmortem examination certificate issued to the family said “the ligature mark due to knot around the neck (of the victim) is in irregular margin”. The family members are awaiting postmortem examination report.
K Ramesh (20) of Anaikaraipatti in Peraiyur taluk was summoned by the Saptur police last Wednesday over the case of a girl who went missing. Ramesh was found hanging from a tree the next day. His relatives alleged that the police personnel killed Ramesh and hung his body. Chellakannu said the police were yet to invoke murder or attempt-to-murder charges in the case.
Fact-finding team visits
A team of lawyers on Tuesday spoke to the relatives of Ramesh. The eight-member ‘fact-finding’ team, led by Advocate K Chenguttuvan, who is a practising lawyer in the district and the high court bench, said though the officials claimed that it was a case of suicide, the circumstances proved that the victim had no motive to kill himself. “The youth was found hanging in a bushland, but his body doesn’t have any bruise. A thread was found in the victim’s mouth. We suspect that he was gagged,” he said.