State government told to preserve bodies of shooting victims

A vacation division bench comprising justices T Ravindran and P Velmurugan offered the direction while admitting a plea moved by advocate S Jimraj Milton and two others.

On setting aside the contention of the Additional Advocate General Narmatha Sampath that the postmortem was progressing in the presence of four magistrates, the bench said the bodies must be preserved until further orders and posted the matter for further hearing to May 30. It also directed the State to file a counter on the issue on that day and held that the advocates can visit Tutincorin to render legal assistance to the victims. The petitioner’s counsel R Sankara Subbu submitted that the police have failed to follow the mandatory procedures before firing. He submitted that police resorted to firing not in self-defence or to disperse the crowd, but deliberately targeted people using snipers just like a hunter hunt animals. He said those killed were all the leaders who had been leading the protest for the past 100 days. He said the police have taken over the government hospitals and were dictating terms on how the autopsy ought to be done.

While AAG Narmatha Sampath commenced her submission that the government is for the people, Justice Velmurugan sought her to refrain from making political statements. Reminding her the she is an officer of the Court, he sought her to make her submissions as per the law and not resort to politicising the issue. He said we are humans first and only then we are lawyers and judges, and she must confine her submissions to aspects of law. While the AAG argued that the prayer as sought for in the petition has already been addressed to and hence ought to be dismissed was set aside by the bench.