The Madras High Court today ordered setting up of a four-member team of doctors to conduct the postmortem of the body of P Ram Kumar, accused in the woman techie murder case, who allegedly committed suicide by biting a live wire at the Puzhal central prison here.
Justice T S Sivagnanam, turning down a plea by R Paramasivan, father of Ram Kumar seeking a doctor of his choice to be present during the autopsy, said that the authorities had treated it as a special case and constituted a three-member team.
The court had also nominated another senior doctor.
The autopsy team comprises Dr Balasubramanian, Professor, forensic medicine, Stanley Hospital, Dr S Selvakumar, Professor, forensic science, Kilpauk Medical College (KMC), Dr Manikandaraja, Assistant Professor, Forensic Science, KMC and Dr K V Vinod, Assistant Professor, Forensic Science, KMC.
The postmortem would be conducted after the doctors receive a copy of the high court order, the judge said.
The court also took note of the Public Prosecutor R Rajarathinam's submission that the entire process would be videographed.
Giving reasons as to why the court did not accede to the plea for a doctor of the petitioner's satisfaction to be present during post-mortem, as had been done in some other cases, the judge said the issue of Ram Kumar's family to seek a nominee of their choice in the team of doctors to conduct post-mortem would arise only when the petitioner is able to make out a case to discredit the team or for any reason, with reasonable material, to show that the team of doctors would be biased.
"There can be no automatic presumption in this regard to discredit the team of government doctors," the judge said.
Swathi was hacked to death, allegedly by Kumar, an engineering graduate, on June 24 while she was waiting to board a train at a platform of Nungambakkam suburban railway station to her work place on the city outskirts.
Ram Kumar allegedly committed suicide by biting an electric wire in the dispensary of the jail yesterday and a hospital later declared him brought dead.
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