MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday directed the Madurai police to produce a copy of the dying declaration obtained from a man who died on March 28, two days after setting himself on fire at Subramaniapuram police station in Madurai.
Justice B Pugalendhi gave the direction following a petition filed by Bhuvaneshwari, the wife of the deceased, P Narayanan, seeking a CBI, CB-CID, or SIT probe into her husband’s death, claiming that he took the extreme step due to harassment by his brother Sivamarkandan, who is a DMK functionary, and the police personnel of the above station.
According to Bhuvaneshwari, there was a civil dispute between Narayanan and Sivamarkandan, due to which the latter continuously abused their family. Bhuvaneshwari alleged that on March 10, Sivamarkandan and his family members came to their house and physically and verbally abused her husband, causing several injuries. Though Narayanan tried to lodge a complaint in this regard, the Subramaniapuram police demanded a bribe for registering a case, she further claimed. When Narayanan refused, the police began harassing the family, she added.
Frustrated by the same, her husband attempted suicide in the police station on March 26 and suffered severe burns, which resulted in his death, she said. She also sought directions to videograph his postmortem and pay compensation to her.
Hearing the plea, Justice Pugalendhi directed the police to produce the dying declaration recorded by the magistrate from Narayanan and adjourned the case to Thursday.
(Assistance to overcome suicidal thoughts is available on the state health department’s helpline 104.)