The Madras High Court, on Wednesday, directed the judicial magistrate of Virudhachalam to consider a plea seeking re-postmortem of Selvamurugan, who allegedly died of police torture. Selvamurugan died on November 4 in a government hospital in Virudhachalam after he was arrested and remanded on a chain-snatching case.
A petition seeking filing of an FIR and re-postmortem was filed by Selvamurugan’s wife Prema. The plea was heard by Justice T Ravindran on Wednesday. In her petition, she had requested for a court direction to allow a re-postmortem of her husband’s body since she alleged that he had suffered injuries on his body due to assault by the police.
The state public prosecutor informed the court that Selvamurugan was arrested for a chain-snatching case on October 30, based on a complaint. He was then remanded to judicial custody on the same day and sent to the district sub-jail, Virudhachalam. Alleging that Selvamurugan was a habitual offender, the state counsel denied that Selvamurugan was illegally detained, as claimed by his wife.
The state counsel further stated that Selvamurugan had a history of Epilepsy and he fell ill, which eventually caused his death in the Virudhachalam government hospital on November 4.
However, speaking to TNM earlier, Prema told that Selvamurugan was picked up by the police on October 28 and on October 30, she was called to the police station. “My husband was not in a position to walk. They allowed me to speak to him and he told me that they were telling him to accept the crime cases. He cried to me telling me to save him,” she had alleged. On November 4, she received a call informing her that her husband was admitted to the hospital and by the time she reached the hospital, he had succumbed to seizures.
Prema and the family had staged a protest demanding the Cuddalore SP to take action against the erring police officers.
Recording all the arguments, the Madras high court directed the Virudhachalam judicial magistrate to consider Prema’s plea and issue appropriate orders.