MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court ordered re-postmortem examination of 20-year-old Manikandan who died under mysterious circumstances at his house in Ramanathapuram, a few hours after he was questioned at the police station. The petitioner contended that custodial torture was the reason for her son’s death.
Manikandan, a final year undergraduate student of English was the eldest of the four sons of the petitioner L Ramalakshmi, a daily wager and a resident of Neerkozhiyendal village. According to the petitioner, the deceased youth had gone to buy manure on his two-wheeler when he was stopped by two Keelathooval policemen, Lakshmanan and Premkumar, near a temple at 4 pm on December 4.
As he sped past the cops, he was chased, caught, beaten up and dragged to Keelathooval station, the petition stated. After being informed that Manikandan was in police custody, Ramalakshmi and her younger son reached the station at around 6.07 pm. The college student was then reportedly found to be in an unstable condition and in pain.
The youth said that he was beaten up by the police in his private parts and he was to be taken to the hospital the next day, said the petitioner. But Manikandan died at 1.30 am at his house and a postmortem was conducted at the Mudukulathur government hospital, the mother said in her petition. Justice GR Swaminathan ordered the re-postmortem and directed the authorities to videograph the procedure.