COIMBATORE: Postmortem of a 19-year-old engineering student who died on Wednesday revealed that he had injected psychotropic painkiller drugs.
The deceased S Ajay Kumar (19), a native of Uthirasamagi in Ramanathapuram district, was pursuing a second-year BE in Civil Engineering in a private college near Eachanari in Coimbatore district and he stayed in a private hostel with his friend at Jagathi Nagar in Eachanari. His father K Soundarapandian is a police constable in Ramanathapuram district.
Ajaykumar was found vomiting in the room around 5 pm on July 13. His friends rushed him to a private hospital from where he was referred to the Coimbatore Medical College hospital. However, he died before reaching the hospital. The Madukkarai police registered a case under section 174 CrPC (unnatural death) and started an investigation into the incident and were able to get his postmortem report on Saturday.
During the post-mortem, it was found that Ajaykumar's left hand had needle pricks. It was found that he had been injecting a solution made of painkiller drug into his veins to get intoxication. Abuse of prescription drugs by the student over some time led to his health deteriorating and to his death, police said.
Police who then searched his room found the drugs and used syringes and other materials that could have been used for diluting the drug, in the room. The deceased was using the painkiller drug mixed with distilled water and self-administered with syringes, said police.
Meanwhile, police initiated the probe to identify the person who had supplied the drug to him without a doctor's prescription. Following the investigation, a pharmacist from Kumbakonam on Sunday was arrested in connection with the case.
The pharmacist A Mohammad Bazeer (52) of Kazhiyar Street in Kumbakonam was running a pharmacy at Kumbakonam. Ajaykumar befriended him through his college seniors. The deceased Ajaykumar and his roommate Madhan used to place purchase orders over the phone and the suspect sent the drugs through a private courier service and received cash online. It has been confirmed that he had been circulating the drugs to many students in the district over the last few years, said a senior police official.
The suspect was booked under section 304 (2) (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Indian Penal Code and two Sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. He was produced before the court and remanded to judicial custody on Sunday night. The special team police are continuing their probe to establish a network of prescription drug abuse.
Following the incident, the Coimbatore District Police Superintendent V Badrinarayanan instructed the personnel attached to all the police stations in rural limits to crack down abuse of prescription drugs and their illegal sale.