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Tamil Nadu girl’s death: Madras high court orders second autopsy, asks state to form SIT
Any death in educational institutions in the future must also be probed by the state’s criminal investigation department (CID), justice N Sathish Kumar said. The case has been transferred to the CID, C Sylendra Babu, the state’s director general of police, announced on Sunday evening after the high court’s directive. Police have arrested two teachers for alleged abetment to death by suicide of the girl.
A day after violent protests erupted at a private residential school in Tamil Nadu’s Kallakurichi district, the Madras high court on Monday ordered a second autopsy of the schoolgirl found dead in the hostel on July 13.
Any death in educational institutions in the future must also be probed by the state’s criminal investigation department (CID), justice N Sathish Kumar said.
The case has been transferred to the CID, C Sylendra Babu, the state’s director general of police, announced on Sunday evening after the court’s directive. Police have arrested two teachers for alleged abetment to death by suicide of the girl.
The Tamil Nadu government must form a special team to investigate Sunday’s violence and arrest those responsible for it, the court further directed. The government will have to submit a status report by July 29, the judge said, adding that the court will closely monitor the investigation.
A mob of some 2,000 people on Sunday stormed the school premises, set fire to school buses and police vans and damaged school property. Protestors were seen pelting stones on police personnel. As many as 52 policemen were injured, including S Selvakumar, Kallakurichi’ superintendent of police, and M Pandian, deputy inspector general of police.
The court passed interim orders based on a plea filed by the deceased student’s father, P Ramalingam, who suspects foul play in her daughter’s death. The family’s plea to include a doctor of their choice to participate in the second autopsy was, however, turned down by the court.
The second post-mortem should be conducted by a team of three doctors appointed by the court and must be captured on video, justice Kumar said. The girl’s father could be allowed to attend the autopsy along with his lawyer, if he so wishes, the judge said.
“The court has all sympathies for the girl’s parents, but for that you can’t put the lives of so many others into risk,” the judge said, directing the petitioner’s lawyer advise them to accept their daughter’s body after the second post-mortem. It will hear the matter again on July 29.
Later in the day, Ramalingam moved a division bench with a plea to include a doctor of his choice to participate in the autopsy. However, justices M Duraiswamy and Sundar Mohan rejected the plea on the ground that they don’t have jurisdiction over criminal matters. An appeal against the single-judge bench can only be filed in the Supreme Court, they said.
