A day after the death of Ramkumar, the alleged murderer of Chennai techie Swathi, the Madras High Court on Monday ordered for the post-mortem to be conducted at the Royapettah Government Hospital. Ramkumar’s body has been kept at the Royapettah mortuary since Sunday.
The post-mortem which was due to be conducted on Monday in the presence of a judicial magistrate was re-scheduled to Tuesday.
Ramkumar’s advocate Ramraj said that the post-mortem was re-scheduled for Tuesday as the parents did not reach the hospital.
“The post-mortem will be over by tomorrow 10 am. Parents did not come and it became late as a result of miscommunication by Puzhal jail officials. I respect the court. You have good and bad priests, I regret that Puzhal jail officials did not give proper information,” Ramraj said.
The High Court has directed the post-mortem to be conducted by a team of four doctors— Dr Balasubramanium, a professor of Stanley Hospital and three doctors belonging to the Royapettah Government Hospital itself— Dr Manikandan, Dr Sellakumar and Dr Vinod.
Ramkumar’s family had approached the court demanding a CBI probe into his death. Their other prayers included having a doctor of their choice carry out the post-mortem, which they insisted be videographed.
The bench while hearing the petition, rejected the demand for a CBI probe, saying it does not have the power to decide on the matter.
According to the police, Ramkumar committed suicide on Sunday by biting a live wire at the Puzhal prison, where he was lodged. Doctors who attended upon Ramkumar at Royapettah GH said he was brought dead to the hospital at around 5:30pm on Sunday.
Ramkumar had been arrested on July 1 for allegedly hacking 24-year-old Swathi, a Chennai techie to death at the Nungambakkam railway station on June 24.
Ramkumar's family has maintained that the 22-year-old was innocent and that he was being framed by the police.
A week after Ramkumar's arrest, VCK leader Thol. Thirumavalavan had called for a CBI inquiry into the murder case and even questioned if the murder was an incident of honour killing.
Following his death, VCK, CPI (M) and the CPI have called for a CBI or a judicial probe into Ramkumar’s death.