Thoothukudi tragedy: Fresh post-mortem on seven victims' bodies begins
THOOTHUKUDI: As per the Madras High Court order, fresh post-mortem on the bodies of seven of the 13 people killed in police firing in the protest against Sterlite, commenced at the Thoothukudi government medical
college hospital on Thursday.
The court gave its ruling for re-post-mortem of the seven bodies that the police claimed to have done after getting proper consent from the relatives of the dead, as a petition was filed alleging tampering of evidences.
The bodies taken for re-post-mortem are of Selvasekar, Kandhaiah, Snowlin Venista, Kaliappan, Shanmugam, Tamilarasan and Karthik.
The re-post-mortem has been performed by two doctors from Thoothukudi government medical college hospital-Dr Manoharan and Dr Sudalaimuthu, both from the department of Forensic medicine in the presence of a specially appointed phys-ician Dr Ambika Prasad Patra, department of Forensic science and Toxicology, Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) Pondicherry.
Four judicial magistrates too have been appointed to monitor the re-post-mortem as has been directed by the High Court. And the entire process has been video-graphed, according to the hospital sources.
The body of 32-year-old Shanmugam of Masilamanipuram in Thoothukudi was handed over to his father, Balaiah, at around 5.10 pm and the re-post-mortem for the deceased Selvasekar commenced at 5.20 pm.
According to hospital sources the fresh
post-mortem would continue all through the night so as to ensure the completion of the re-postmortem of the rest of the bodies and handed over them to their relatives by Friday (June 1).
In view of the performance of the re-post-mortem of the seven deceased, security has been beefed up in and around the Thoothukudi medical college hospital and the patients and their relatives were allowed after security checks.The police also used drones for aerial surveillance around the government hospital area to check if miscreants created any problem in the name of funeral procession while taking the bodies of the deceased for the last rites.
Adhering to the Madras High court rulings, the officials strictly stated that the bodies of the deceased after the fresh post-mortem would be handed over only to their relatives.
The bodies of the six others killed-Jeyaraman, Jancy, Anthony Selvaraj, Glaston, Maniraj and Ranjith Kumar, however, are preserved in the mortuary until the High court’s further orders. Post-mortem of these six bodies has not yet been performed as their relatives are yet to give their consent.
