Chittoor killings: Hyderabad High Court orders 2nd autopsy on woodcutter
Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Thursday ordered a fresh post-mortem on the body of Sashi Kumar, a woodcutter from Tamil Nadu who was killed in the police encounter along with 19 others on April 7 in the Seshachalam forests.
The High Court was dealing with a petition seeking the filing of a case under Section 302 (murder) against the police personnel involved in the encounter and a fresh post-mortem on the bodies of the deceased.
3 docs to do post-mortem
A division bench of Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar directed the director of Nims to constitute an expert medical team with not less than three doctors to conduct the post-mortem.
Read: Probe by SIT sought into Chittoor encounter deaths in AP
The Tamil Nadu chief secretary was directed to ensure the safety of the medical team visiting the state for conducting the autopsy. The court directed the CS to ensure that there was no disturbance and no outsider be allowed at the place in Chennai where the post-mortem would be conducted. The bench also said that the doctors who had conducted the first post-mortem could accompany the team from Nims. It directed that the fresh post-mortem report should be submitted in a sealed cover to the court and its contents should not be disclosed to anyone.
Read: Andhra Pradesh police file murder case in Chittoor firing incident
Earlier, when the bench was about to give directions for doctors in Chennai to conduct the post-mortem, additional advocate general Dammalaptai Srinivas told the court that the atmosphere in TN was charged and if Chennai doctors were asked to do the post-mortem, there were chances that the report would not be fair. He urged the court to give a direction to doctors from any other state. While placing the inquest report before the Bench he also said they were unable to produce the first post-mortem report as the doctor who had conducted the autopsy was not in Tirupati.
Considering the request, the bench said that since Nims was an independent institution and the incident was in no way connected with TS, it was ordering the director of Nims to constitute the team and send it to Chennai.
Mr Balu, counsel from Chennai appearing for Muniammal, urged the court to order a fresh post-mortem on all the six bodies preserved at the government hospital at Thiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu. He also urged the court to direct the authorities not to dispose of the bodies till Monday.
The bench made it clear it had already given a direction to the police to hand over the bodies to the families of the victims if they desired. The judges said they were considering the plea of Ms Muniammal as she had approached the court.
Read: Chittoor killings: Murder case on Andhra Pradesh cops
Mr V. Raghunath, counsel for Mr Chandra Sekhar, said the Madras High Court had ordered the preservation of bodies till April 17.
The Bench directed the authorities to preserve the body of Sashi Kumar till the completion of the fresh autopsy and that the expenditure for conducting the fresh autopsy should be met by the AP government.
While directing the AAG to give the first post-mortem report by Monday, the Bench said that the other requests of the petitioner would be considered later and adjourned the case to Monday.
