New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to entertain a special leave petition filed by the father of Swathi murder case accused P. Ramkumar for the presence of a private doctor of his choice during his son’s post-mortem.
Swathi, a software engineer, was hacked to death in broad daylight while waiting for a suburban train at the Nungambakkam railway station, in Chennai and the accused Ramkumar was reported to have committed suicide inside the jail.
A bench of Justices J.S. Khehar and Arun Mishra told counsel Kamini Jaiswal, appearing for the petitioner, that such an order will become a “bad practice”.
Justice Khehar said “We cannot allow you that. Tell us if you want an independent medical board. Tell us if you want an independent person on the medical board. “We are with you. But private doctors can never be allowed.”
The Bench asked the counsel for petitioner, R. Paramasivan, whether he had apprehensions if the doctors were biased or if they were not good enough or if the hospital was not good.
Ms Jaiswal replied that the post-mortem is being conducted by government doctors, who are under the State government, and they would be biased. We want to know the truth about his death, whether he committed suicide by biting into a live wire or whether he was a victim of custodial death inside the central jail.
Senior advocates C.A. Sundaram and Additional Advocate General Subramonium Prasad, appearing for the Tamil Nadu government, submitted that while a single judge of the Madras High Court had passed an order including one more doctor to the team of forensic experts who are to conduct the autopsy before October 1, the Division Bench had allowed a fifth doctor from the AIIMS to participate in the autopsy.
When Ms Jaiswal said that there have been instances in sensational cases of AIIMS doctors coming on record saying they were influenced, Justice Khehar said “What will your doctor do? He is just one man against five. No. This will become a bad practice.” The Bench then permitted him to withdraw the appeal.
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