AIIMS doctor to be part of Ramkumar autopsy team

Justice N Kirubakaran, who had been appointed as a third judge to decide on the issue of presence of an independent forensic expert during Ramkumar’s autopsy, said “This court agrees with the view taken by Justice S Vaidyanathan that the presence of an independent person with forensic knowledge would lead to creation of doubt in the public about the nature of the investigation made by the state machinery.” 

He directed the state government to get a doctor from the AIIMS to be along with the four government doctors, who were scheduled to perform the post-mortem. 

Earlier, when the case was taken up for hearing heated arguments prevailed. Counsel R Sankarasubbu appearing on behalf of Ramkumar’s father R Paramasivam contended that the govt is on trial as the death had happened under suspicious circumstances in custody. 

Alleging foul play in the whole episode leading to Ramkumar’s death, he said technical experts reveal that from a wire pulled out from a switch, wherein a mere 220 volts of power alone would emanate, cannot cause a person’s death. Moreover, with Puzhal prison being a modern one there was little scope that a wire could be pulled out and even in the event of someone biting into it, the power would trip.

He also contended that the “The image of the state government will go up if it concedes to the demand of Paramasivan of appointing a private doctor to monitor the post-mortem. There is nothing to be countered. The state also wants to find out the truth. “ Additional advocate general C Manishankar, however, said the Code of Criminal Procedure had remedy for all such eventualities and added that mere allegations and apprehensions were not enough to appoint an independent person to be present during an autopsy.