MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Monday (June 15) directed the father of R Aakash, the Manamadurai youth who died allegedly due to custodial torture on March 8, to receive his body which has been kept in the mortuary of Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai for the past three months, by 5 pm today.
Justice L Victoria Gowri gave the direction after a petition filed by Aakash's father A Rajesh Kannan, was listed today under the caption 'for being mentioned'.
The petition, which had sought a series of directions including CBCID probe, Rs 50 lakh compensation, preservation of CCTV footage, etc, had been disposed of on June 10 by directing the CBCID investigation officer to conclude the investigation and file final report as expeditiously as possible.
When the case was again taken up on Monday, the government counsel contended that Aakash's body was in a very decomposed state and the doctors were unable to enter the mortuary due to risk of contamination. They sought a direction to the police to dispose of the body as per statute.
However, an advocate appearing on behalf of Aakash's family claimed on Monday that he has been recently engaged by the family members to argue in the case and sought leave to place his arguments.
Justice Gowri pointed out that though the court had extensively heard Kannan's petition and passed several directions in his favour, and even facilitated the family members to continue their protests peacefully in Manamadurai, they have failed to receive Aakash's body despite specific instructions from the court in the past.
Holding that the deceased person should be given due respect, the judge directed Kannan to receive his son's body by 5 pm today, orally warning that if the body was not received today, she might be constrained to direct the police to dispose of the body as per law. The matter was posted on Tuesday.
According the prosecution, Aakash suffered a fracture in his right leg after jumping from a railway bridge while trying to evade arrest in an assault case on March 5. From there, he was directly taken to Manamadurai primary health centre, then the Sivaganga GH and later to the Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai, where he experienced breathing difficulties and died, three days later.
However, Aakash's family claimed that he had sustained the injury during police torture. They also staged a five-day road roko on the Madurai-Rameswaram, which they dropped after the court's directions.
The remand report recorded by the Manamadurai judicial magistrate on March 7, also contained Aakash’s statement, in which he had claimed that he was blindfolded and his right leg, which was kept on stones and covered with a wet sack, was beaten using an iron rod, resulting in breaking of bones and bleeding with severe pain.
