Dead body found: Cops fight over jurisdiction for 4 hours

Chennai: Tussle between railway police and Kancheepuram police over jurisdiction of handling the body of a murdered woman found near railway track near Potheri railway station delayed the process of shifting the mortal remains by more than four hours on Tuesday.

The murder could have taken place on Monday night and police have not ruled out the possible attempt of sexual assault on the victim.

The body of the burqa-clad woman with stab injuries on her neck and face was found by 5 am on Tuesday by railway gang men checking the track. They immediately informed about it to station master who in turn reported it to the railway police.

A team from the Tambaram railway police station rushed to the scene only to measure the distance from track to the body and declare that it was not in their jurisdiction because it was not in 6 feet distance from the tracks.

Then the Maraimalai Nagar police was informed about the unidentified body aged about 30, with churidar and burqa. 

The team from the Maraimalai Nagar police station reached the scene and came up with another theory of jurisdiction and refused to remove the body to the hospital saying that it was certainly a case of railway police since the body is lying in the land that belongs to the railways. 

Nearly four hours passed with nobody touching the body because of the jurisdictional issue. In between somebody called up the Kancheepuram superintendent of police and informed about the situation. 

The officer immediately asked the Maraimalai Nagar police register the case of murder and remove the body to Chengalpet GH for post-mortem.

Police later said that no object was found to ascertain the identity of the woman. 

“She had stab injuries on her body. Some of her hair was ripped off along with skull skin. We found a box containing some tablets,” police noted.

Police have not ruled out the possibility of attempted rape, but noted that it would be known only after getting the post-mortem report.