Widow alleges death due to custodial torture, Madras High Court orders exhumation, re-autopsy

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court directed the State to exhume the body of a 43-year-old man from the Scheduled Caste (SC) community and conduct a re-postmortem to find out if there are any injuries on the body, after the man’s widow alleged that her late husband died due to custodial torture.

Justice R Sakthivel directed that the re-postmortem should be conducted by a team of two doctors who have Master's Degree in Forensic Medicine, one from Madras Medical College, Chennai, and another from KAP Vishwanathan Government Medical College, Tiruchy.

The judge also directed the Head of State Police Force and Villupuram superintendent of police to secure all the CCTV footage from Villupuram Taluk police station pertaining to the alleged custodial torture.

All respondents were also directed to follow the norms and directions that the High Court had issued in Santhosh vs. District Collector, Madurai case, and adhere to the direction scrupulously within eight days.

The widow, Anju, moved a petition before the High Court seeking to conduct re-postmortem, with videograph, to find out if there were any injuries on his body due to custodial torture by Villupuram police.

According to her, Villupuram Taluk police sub-inspector took her husband Raja into custody from his workplace on April 10. Raja was illegally detained in the police station, during which the police officials brutally assaulted her husband, she said.

After he was released on the same day, she found injuries all over his body, Anju alleged. When his health deteriorated, Raja was taken to the government hospital in Villupuram, where the doctors declared him ‘brought dead’.

The postmortem examination was conducted within 30 minutes in a hasty manner and the body was handed over, the petitioner contended. The police personnel tried to coerce her to cremate the body though the customary practice was to bury it. Despite the pressure, the body was buried, she said.

She submitted a memorandum to the Villupuram SP seeking a re-autopsy to establish her allegation of custodial torture. However, no action was taken on her representation, Anju said.

Responding to the charges, the Villupuram SP said in the affidavit that the allegations levelled against the police personnel were baseless and added that there was not even an iota of evidence to back the charges of custodial torture or harassment.

The official claimed that the widow was making up false versions only to substantiate her plea and with the intention of creating a bad image against the police force.