From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to stall the second autopsy of a 17-year old Tamil Nadu school girl, who committed suicide in her school hostel on July 13, as ordered by the Madras High Court a day earlier after her death triggered a massive arson and violence in Kallakurichi district on Sunday.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India N V Ramana and Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kolhli, was hearing the plea of the girl’s father P Ramalingam to stall the second autopsy slated on Tuesday until a doctor of his choice is included in it.
Noting that the Madras High Court was already monitoring the case, the CJI asked the father’s counsel: “Don’t you trust the High Court. We won’t pass any order. The High Court had on Monday refused to have any doctor of the father’s choice in the second autopsy it ordered.
The Madras High Court had on Monday ordered re-postmortem of the victim and directions to form a special team to arrest all those who vandalised. Hearing a plea moved by the deceased girl’s father seeking a re-postmortem after suspecting foul play, Justice N Sathish Kumar of the Madras HC questioned the ransacking of the school and burning of transfer certificates of 4,500 during the violence in which a DIG of police and the district Superintendent of Police were among 52 police personnel wounded.
The 17-year-old girl, a class 12 student, was suspected to have jumped from the third floor of the hostel of the private residential school in Kallakurichi district about 250km from state capital Chennai. But her family suspected foul play. In a video on Sunday, her mother said a suicide note, which accuses two teachers of harassment, was planted and not in her daughter’s handwriting.
A post-mortem conducted on July 14 said she appeared to have died of haemorrhage and shock due to multiple injuries. At her father’s request who alleged foul play, the high court on Monday directed a second autopsy on the Class 12 student. Justice N Sathish Kumar said the second post-mortem should be conducted by a team of three doctors appointed by the court and must be captured on video.
