Dalit’s death: HC orders second autopsy

Hyderabad: The High Court at Hyderabad has ordered second autopsy on the body of Dalit youth Madhukar, who was allegedly done to death in an honour killing by the family of a girl with whom he was in love.

The Court directed that the re-postmortem should be conducted by forensic experts of Osmania Medical College and Kakatiya Medical College in the presence of the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Karimnagar. The court also said the entire exercise of re-postmortem should be video recorded and the report submitted to the court in a sealed cover.

Justice A Ramalingeswara Rao gave these directions in an interim order passed after hearing a petition by the mother of Madhukar, Manthini Lakshmi on Thursday seeking re-postmortem. Terming her son’s death as a brutal murder, she challenged the Manthini police registering a case of suspicious death.

She asserted that her son was murdered by the family of the upper caste girl with whom he was in love. His body was found in the bushes on the outskirts of Manthini town. V Raghunath, the counsel appearing for the petitioner, informed the Court that the police was not conducting the investigation properly in order to protect the accused. The Dalits had to organisation agitation to force the police to register FIR in the case.

The counsel sought registering of case under Section 302 of IPC as well as relevant sections under SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act.The Government Pleader for Home Department informed the court that it had already been decided to order re-post mortem of Madhukar’s body by forensic experts of Kakatiya Medical College. The judge passed interim orders and adjourned the matter.

Legal Correspondent