Hospital told to preserve school boy’s body

Chennai: The Madras high court has directed the dean/chief medical officer of the government medical college and hospital in Tiruchy district to preserve the body of a plus-one boy, found hanging in a school in Perambalur district on December 22. Suspecting foul play in his death, his father charged the school management with murdering his son and filed a petition in the Madras high court, seeking a CBI probe.

Justice K. Kalyanasundaram gave the directive to preserve the body till December 29, at a special sitting on Saturday, and ordered notice to the state government and correspondent/principal of Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Perambalur, on a petition filed by M. Ramanathan, father of the deceased R. Ramkumar, which also sought re-post-mortem on the body of his son.

When the petition came up for hearing, additional government pleader P. Sanjai Gandhi submitted that since the petitioner and his relatives did not cooperate, post-mortem could not be conducted at the government hospital in Perambalur and, hence, the body was taken to the government hospital in Tiruchy, where the post-mortem was conducted and it was videographed. The police were conducting the investigation in a proper manner. The Tamil teacher of the school was arrested by the police, he added.

Petitioner’s counsel K. Balu submitted that Ramanathan was working in NLC and residing in Neyveli. His son Ramkumar was studying plus-one in the school. On December 22, the petitioner’s wife received a message that her son was found hanging. Immediately, they rushed to the school. But before they could reach the school, the body was taken to the government hospital in Perambalur.
On seeing the body, the petitioner grew suspicious of the involvement of the school management and gave a detailed complaint to the police narrating the torture meted out to his son by the teachers and warden, which was informed by Ramkumar to his mother on December 20.

Ramanathan also alleged that the school management murdered his son. However, the police did not take any action. But, they registered a case of suicide. His request to allow his doctor during post mortem and to videograph it was turned down by the Perambalur hospital authorities. The body was taken to Tiruchy, where the post-mortem was done at night without informing him. A high ranking police officer was very close to the school management. Therefore, the police were reluctant to take any action against the management. He came to know that nearly 57 students have died in the school so far. Hence, the CBI may be directed to probe the matter to find the truth behind the death of the petitioner’s son and other students, Balu added.