Chargesheet ready in Swathi case

Highly placed police sources told DTNext that though the special investigation team has prepared the chargesheet, the alleged suicide of Ramkumar will relieve them from undergoing a scrutiny about the merits and demerits of the case. 

“We are ready with the chargesheet and will be filing it by the end of this week. Checking the content of the chargesheet is at the final stage,” a senior police official told this paper. 

However, this bulky chargesheet is now going to be just a bundle of paper that will not serve any purpose, as even the lone accused is dead.  Police will no longer have make an effort to provide evidences in the case. “We will be filing the chargesheet along with the death certificate of Ramkumar. The court will then give a closure report in the case,” the official added. 

With the death of Ramkumar, several doubts were raised regarding the genuineness of police versions in the case will also find its natural end. There had been controversial reports regarding the claims of the police raised by parents of the accused and also by some Dalit activists. Ramkumar’s mother had alleged that the police had slit the throat of her son while arresting him in Meenakshipuram and that her son did not try to kill himself. 

After his death on Monday, several doubts were raised over the claims of prison authorities. 

According to prison authorities, Ramkumar, who was taken to the dispensary block for treatment for a minor ailment, pulled out the wire from a plug point and bit into it to end his life. However, sources say that all electrical fittings in prisons were well maintained and even if there was a loose plug point it might not have long wires inside. “The plug points will have smaller wires and even if someone pulls it out, they may not be long enough to reach one’s mouth,” a police official said. 

Meanwhile, the admission report by the medical officer at Government Royapettah Hospital, who examined the body of Ramkumar, has not mentioned that he found burns in his mouth. The report had only talked of injuries on the right side of the neck, above the left chest and an aberration on the left upper arm.