Court Denied Request Of Second Post-Mortem In Tamil Nadu Schoolgirl's Suicide
Update: 2022-01-23 13:39 IST
The girl's father had petitioned the court for a criminal investigation by a team from the Tamil Nadu Police's Crime Investigation Department (CID) as well as a second post-mortem. The court denied the request, but it did order the appointment of a magistrate to record the parents' statement, which will be filed when the court resumes hearings on Monday.
While on Saturday, the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court ordered the parents of a 17-year-old girl who committed suicide on Wednesday after alleged mistreatment by her school warden and attempts to convert her to Christianity to collect her body and perform the final rites yesterday.
At first, it appeared that the girl, a Class XII student who died 10 days after ingesting a toxic drug, had just accused her warden of abuse and she said he had pressured her to clean his room.
The person who videotaped and distributed the footage in breach of the Juvenile Justice Act is being sought by police. The court further instructed detectives to concentrate on the circumstances that led to the girl's death. The warden has been charged with abetting suicide and has been arrested under the Juvenile Act. Police have widened their investigation and are speaking with the girl's classmates and others who know her.This incidence has been labelled 'forced conversion' by the state branch of the BJP, which is in opposition, and has began red-flagging it as aspect of its push for anti-conversion legislation, contentious versions of which have already been approved by states where the party is in power.
Meanwhile, state unit head K Annamalai, who is a former IPS officer, also violated the law by tweeting a video of the girl. He urged for an impartial investigation and the prosecution of those guilty. He described conversion as a rapidly spreading deadly plant that must be controlled by the ruling DMK.