Madras HC orders re-autopsy of Thoothukudi victims

Observing that confidence of the public in the criminal justice delivery system must be upheld, the vacation bench comprising Justice S Baskaran and Justice R M T Teekaa Raman, directed the State to form a team of three doctors to hold the post-mortem out of which one would be from the forensic department not below the rank of Reader from any one of the institutions viz AIIMS, JIPMER and Government Medical College, Trivandrum. The bench further held that the three doctors, shall form a team and do the re-postmortem of the seven bodies on whom already postmortem has been carried on in the presence of the same Judicial Magistrate who was present at the time of the first post-mortem.

However, while the bench in its order had held that the same team shall conduct the post-mortem on the remaining six bodies, it subsequently kept the holding of postmortem in abeyance for a week following the submission of one of the counsel R Sankarasubbu that he proposed to prefer an appeal before the Supreme Court by way of SLP seeking a private doctor of their choice to hold the postmortem on the remaining six bodies.

Also, holding that the presence of a ballistic expert is not necessary as sought by one of the petitioners, the bench offered a slew of advice on the X-rays that need to be taken and the procedures to be followed during the postmortem. The bench while seeking the State to ensure peaceful performance of the last rites without any law and order problem, directed it to hand over the body only to the relatives of the deceased. 

No other persons shall be permitted in the premises of the Government hospital at the time of handing over and taking over the dead body, the bench added. Further, directing the State to file a status report about the number of persons who have sustained grievous injuries now undergoing treatment in government and private hospitals, the bench, held that it is open to the State to make a representation to the Chief Justice for clubbing the five cases pending before the Madurai bench. The bench then posted the main petitions and other miscellaneous petitions for further hearing to June 06.

Earlier, during the hearing Advocate General Vijay Narayan submitted that out of the 13 victims only 12 of them had sustained bullet injuries and even among the 12 victims, bullets were not found in any of them as they had entered the body and left it on the other side.