Ramkumar autopsy referred to third Judge

The Bench of Justices Huluvadi G Ramesh and S Vaidyanathan differed in their views on whether or not to allow the presence of an individual forensic expert during the autopsy as per the choice of the petitioner. Following this, the Bench directed the High Court Registry to place the matter before the Chief Justice SK Kaul to finalise the name of the third Judge who would independently take a decision based on the merits of the case. 

When the matter was taken up for hearing, the First Bench comprising the Chief Justice and Justice R Mahadevan today said that Mr Justice P Kirubakaran would be the third Judge who would take a decision on whether to allow the petitioner’s plea or not. Ramkumar had allegedly committed suicide by biting a live wire at the high security Puzhal Central Prison on Sunday evening, following which Tiruvallur Judicial Magistrate Tamilselvi conducted a probe. She also visited the Government Royapettah Hospital where the body of Ramkumar was kept. A three-member team of forensic experts was formed to perform the post mortem. 

However, Ramkumar’s father R Paramasivam, filed a petition in the High Court seeking to permit a forensic expert of their choice during the autopsy, besides a CBI probe into the death of his son. However, Judge T S Sivagnanam rejected the plea and appointed forensic expert consisting of professor of forensic expert Prof S Balasubramanian of Government Stanley Medical College Hospital as the fourth member of the team. 

The other three members were Professor of Forensic Medicine R Selvakumar and assistant professor Manikanda Raja of Kilpauk Government Hospital along with assistant professor at Royapettah Government Hospital, KV Vinod Kumar.