HC orders to form panel for Ariyalur farmer’s autopsy

CHENNAI: Justice G Chandrasekharan of Madras High Court who made a special sitting on Saturday passed direction to Thanjavur, Tiruchy and Madurai medical colleges’ deans to constitute a team of doctors to conduct an autopsy on Ariyalur-based farmer named Sembulingam’s body who was allegedly killed in police harassment.

In a special sitting at his residence, the judge passed the direction on hearing a petition filed by M Karthikeyan, a resident of Kasankottai village, Udayarpalayam Taluk, Ariyalur district.

The petitioner, who claims to be a relative of the deceased prayed for a direction to constitute the doctors’ team as per the willingness of the family members and further wanted the investigation to be transferred to some other agencies other than TN police.

According to the petitioner, On November 25, in search of Arunkumar, son-in-law of the deceased, in an SC/ST Act case, Vikkiramangalam police station’s Inspector Veluchamy, Sub-Inspector Balakrishnan, Special Sub-Inspector Pazhanivel and five other cops visited Sembulingam’s house.

“The above-said brutal murderers trespassed into the house of Sembulingam. They vandalised the house and the properties in the house. The police kicked Sembulingam and then the team of police attacked my aged paternal aunt Sudha and her son Manikandan. The cops used abusive and unprintable language and then they threatened that the police would kill the three,” he added.

He further claimed that when the trio was admitted to the GH, one SSI visited the hospital and obtained a fake statement from Sembulingam. He further made others agree with the statement and get their signatures.

“However, Sembulingam died in this attack on December 8. Therefore, we want to conduct the post-mortem to bring out the truth with the doctors of our choice. Since the case is against the state police, it should be transferred to other agencies like CBI for a fair probe,” the petitioner’s counsel K Balu argued.

Recording the submission, the judge directed Thanjavur, Tiruchy, and Madurai medical colleges’ deans to name each a doctor of their choice to conduct the autopsy on Sunday before 12 pm.

The judge further asked the kin of Sembulingam to conduct the final rites peacefully.

Pertaining to the request to transfer the case to another agency, the judge directed the state police to file their response within two weeks.