Swathi murder case: Ramkumar's body buried near his native village

TIRUNELVELI: The Chennai techie Swathi murder case accused Ramkumar, who was suspected to have committed suicide inside the Puzhal prison was buried near his village on Sunday, contrary to their custom of cremating the dead.

This is to enable the body to be exhumed later for legal purposes if necessary.
The family had taken the decision against their usual custom as according to Ramkumar’s father, Paramasivam, there were injuries in the chest and neck that were suspected to have not been caused due to electrocution.

“Hence as per the advise of our advocate, we buried the body of my son so that it could be easy for us to exhume later for legal purpose,” said Paramasivam.

They would decide the next course of action on the issue only after receiving the post-mortem report, he said.

The body of Ramkumar, safely kept in a coffin, was buried by placing a ‘kadappa’ stone on it at Parayadi, located hardly a kilometer from his native village, Meenakshipuram near Tenkasi in Tirunelveli district.

Earlier kept in front of his house for the villagers to pay their homage, the body was taken in procession to the burial ground at around 3 pm. Dalit party leaders like Vanniayarasu of VCK and John Pandian of Tamilaga Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam, along with their party cadres and villagers went in the procession.

The Kadayanallur MLA, Abubacker of IUML, and DMK’s Tirunelveli (West) district secretary, Sivapadmanaban paid their homage to Ramkumar at his house by placing wreaths on his body.

The case being sensitive, Tirunelveli district police superintendent V. Vikraman monitored the situation at Mennakshipuram village since last night and around 300 police personnel were deployed in the village under the direct supervision of the district SP.