Re-postmortem plea in Villupuram girls’ death rejected

Even as reports are doing its rounds that the Villupuram girls’ suicide is not a case of drowning, the Madras High Court has dismissed a plea to ex- hume Saranya’s body and hold a re-postmortem. Justice R Mala dismissed the plea after holding that Merely because the cause of death is not given in the first post-mortem certificate, it is not a reason for passing an order for conducting re-postmortem. The judge further pointed out that Saranya’s body was buried on January 24, 2016 after holding the post-mortem. 

The plea for re-postmortem was filed on January 3, which means that nine days have already gone by. The body of Saranya has been in a decomposed stage and holding a re-postmortem to find out whether there is any contusion on the body is unviable. “Furthermore, internal organs are dilated once a body is buried. So no purpose will be served for ordering re-postmortem,” the judge said.

She also pointed out that merely because re-postmortem was ordered in the case of Monisha, it is not the case for ordering re-postmortem in the case of Saranya too. Petitioner’s counsel R Sankarasubbu had submitted that failure of the doctors in performing the post-mortem on Saranya in a proper manner has resulted in them being unable to give reason for the cause of death. 

He had also contended that in the body of Monisha, lungs and other internal organs have taken during autopsy. Whereas in respect of Saranya, all the internal organs are intact, which will facilitate the Doctors to ascertain the real cause of death. 

S.Shanmuga Velayutham, Public Prosecutor, had submitted that in the re-postmortem certificate of Monisha, reason for death has not been mentioned and final opinion was also not given by the Doctors. The petitioner has also not disclosed as to what is the defect in the first post-mortem of Saranya.