Madras high court orders Tamil Nadu student’s re-postmortem as kin allege custodial torture – Hindustan Times

The Madurai bench of the Madras high court on Tuesday ordered a re-postmortem of a college student, L Manikandan, whose family alleged that he died in custody due to torture, according to vernacular news agencies.

The court ordered video recording of the procedure after a plea was moved by his mother, stating that her 21-year-old son was tortured in police custody. Police have refuted the allegations and released CCTV footage from the station which shows that he was standing and was questioned by an officer who is also standing but there was no physical interaction.

The student from Tamil Nadu’s Ramanathapuram district was stopped on his two-wheeler by police on Saturday during a routine vehicle check along the Paramakudi-Keezhathooval road. He was being questioned at the Keezhathooval police station and he was released a few hours later, police said.

He was then found lying unconscious in his home in the wee hours of Sunday and he was rushed to the Mudukulathur General Hospital where he was declared brought dead. The family refused to accept his body on Monday claiming that it was a case of custodial torture and demanded action against the Keezhathooval inspector and other officials.

Ramanathapuram district police, in a statement, said they stopped him because his number plate was different and that he didn’t cooperate during the vehicle check so they had to chase him. While questioning they had not found him guilty of any crime and the station informed his mother to pick him up and warned that his activities seemed suspicious.

Police said CCTV footage shows Manikandan leaving with his family from the police station at 8pm on Saturday. “Police did not assault him. It was a casual inquiry,” said Ramanathapuram district’s superintendent of police, E Karthik.

“Between the place of his arrest and the station it is barely a kilometre. He was taken on his bike in front of the public. What happened in both these places is clear. He died in his home. Between the time after he was let off from the station and the time of his death, six hours had passed. What happened in those six hours is a question we have to ask.”

The official said the interim report of the post-mortem that was released on Tuesday says that there have been no internal injuries and no lacerations on his body. The final report will take a week’s time.